Whew! This week’s Wordfull Wednesday was a lot harder to write. There are many issues I have strong views on. The choices I gave for this week’s Wordfull Wednesday topics were: Abortion, Economy, Education, Immigration, Marriage (just between one man and one woman or should gays be allowed to marry?) ,War (Iraq, Afghanistan, or war in general). How in the heck was I going to choose just one to write about? I enjoyed the discussion that occurred on my friend Calandria’s blog about socialism and equality. I liked reading the posts about California’s Proposition 8 on Sea Star’s and Michal’s blogs and the article Alina posted on her blog. However,when I took a good look at all the issues and which one is most important for me it has to be the issue of abortion.
Simply put, I can’t vote for a candidate that supports abortion.
I know abortion isn’t the only issue but it is so important for me that it is the first issue I look at. It’s why I didn’t like Rudy Giuliani when he made his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
I’m not going to quote any statistics. I know you’ve all heard or read them before. Instead I just want to share my own feelings about abortion.
I had two miscarriages this year. It is a traumatic experience to go through, knowing that the life you are carrying is gone. If my first miscarriage hadn’t happened I’d be holding a newborn baby in just two weeks time. Because of those experiences I can’t fathom actually making the choice to terminate a pregnancy. It’s inconceivable to me that a woman would want to do that!
Many who are pro-abortion prefer to call themselves pro-choice. That is misleading. A woman does have the right to choose what to do with her body. We all have the right to do what we choose but as soon as that choice intrudes upon another person we no longer have a right to do what we want. That is why there are laws against stealing, rape, murder, etc. Abortion has been legalized but that still does not make it right. The sixteenth century Christian reformer, John Calvin, wrote, “If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, … it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fœtus in the womb before it has come to light.”(John Calvin, Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony, trans. Charles William Bingham, 22 vols. (1979), 3:42)
Russell M. Nelson, an apostle in the LDS Church, wrote an article this past month about abortion. I’d encourage all of you to read it. The following is an analogy he made that better explains what I mean about a woman’s “right to choose.”
“Elective abortion has been legalized in many countries on the premise that a woman is free to choose what she does with her own body. To an extent this is true for each of us, male or female. We are free to think. We are free to plan. And we are free to do. But once an action has been taken, we are never free from its consequences.
“To understand this concept more clearly, we can learn from the astronaut. Anytime during selection or preparation, he or she is free to withdraw from the program. But once the spacecraft has lifted off, the astronaut is bound to the consequences of the previous choice to make the journey.
“So it is with people who choose to embark on a journey that leads to parenthood. They have freedom of choice—to begin or not to begin that course. When conception does occur, that choice has already been made.
“Yes, a woman is free to choose what she will do with her body. Whether her choice leads to an astronaut’s mission or to a baby, her choice to begin the journey binds her to the consequences of that choice. She cannot “unchoose.”
“When the controversies about abortion are debated, “individual right of choice” is invoked as though it were the one supreme virtue. That could only be true if but one person were involved. The rights of any one individual do not allow the rights of another individual to be abused. In or out of marriage, abortion is not solely an individual matter. Terminating the life of a developing baby involves two individuals with separate bodies, brains, and hearts. A woman’s choice for her own body does not include the right to deprive her baby of life—and a lifetime of choices that her child would make.
“As Latter-day Saints, we should stand up for choice—the right choice—not simply for choice as a method.” (Russell M. Nelson, “Abortion: An Assault on the Defenseless,” Ensign, Oct 2008, 32–37)
Standing up for “the right choice” is precisely why I cannot support a candidate who is pro-abortion, a candidate who thinks babies are a punishment.
To participate in Wordfull Wednesday write a post about any of the topic choices listed in the first paragraph of this post. Come back here and sign your name on the Mr. Linky leaving the URL for your POST not your blog. Make sure to visit the posts of others who are participating and leave a comment. Don’t we all love comments? And please, keep it civil! I know that some of these topics can be very controversial but we can disagree civilly!
we both did the same topic.. I love the quote you used… I havent read that talk before
thanks for your thoughts for us to stand up more for this
But what do you think would happen if they outlawed abortions?
My own mother had an abortion in the early 70’s – I think before it was legal and had serious complications and infections from it.
I agree with you that it isn’t our right to kill a child but people are going to do it anyway. I just think it should be kept safe. It’s very sad though when someone decides that killing their own child is their only option.
And, random, I enjoy your blog and all the references to chocolate are hilarious. 🙂
I loved that that article in the Ensign was so bold and informative.
I also think as a mother it is very hard not to get so emotional about this issue. The idea of terminating the life of a baby absolutely makes me sick.
Hi Cocoa, Just wanted to say how much I liked this post. I’m going to try and choose a topic today. We’ll see if I get to it!
I had not seen that clip before and it made me sick. I agree 100% with everything you said.
I finally participated in Wordfull Wednesday! (been meaning to for a long time.) Thanks for your thoughts on this, Cocoa.
I have so many thoughts on this, most of them not PC. To my mind an abortion is an act of selfishness (even when your health is in danger you are still choosing yourself over the life of another – so technically, still selfish).
People say it (abortion) is about tolerance for a woman’s right to choose, when really it is about intolerance for a woman’s potential inconvenience.
I better stop there or this will turn into a post of it’s own. Thanks for your thoughts on this subject.
Gotta love Pres. Monson. I love “the right choice—not simply for choice as a method.” that is so eloquently put. You put this whole post very eloquently. Good job.
This is such an interesting topic, it can go on and on I think. I know a couple of women who have had abortions, one became LDS and regrets it to this day, one is not LDS and doesn’t think about it.
There will always be legitimate reasons to get an abortion, such as serious illness or rape. I wouldn’t consider those as “selfish” reasons to abort a baby, especially if you have other children to care for. The bretheren have told us to consider these situations carefully. That is why I feel that we still need to have a choice.
I think there was an article in Octobers New era, which my children all read and we discussed it. I am currently 5 months pregnant and we had some good talks about it all, they can’t understand why someone would want to have an abortion – I think it is only legal in 2 States in Australia, one allowing it to happen up to 20 weeks!!!
Too many people use it as a form of contraception, they don’t protect themselves, and they can fall back on the *morning after pill* and an abortion. A sad sad mess i think.
I am grateful to have found the gospel and be able to teach my children to honor & respect their bodies.
I am pro-choice, and I am not pro-abortion. I believe it should be available to women as an option, but as many pro-choice people have said, “safe, legal, and rare.” Historical work on abortion when it was criminalized shows that the law disproportionately cracked down on poor women while wealthy could access (safer) abortions undercover.
More importantly, having worked as a patient advocate in an abortion clinic, I can attest that the vast majority of women who came through our doors took the decision seriously, not lightly. I admire and applaud the women who recognized that they did not have the means to support a (another) child for I find the idea of bringing a child into the world for which one knows one cannot care (for physical, emotional, financial, or other reasons) far more reprehensible than abortion. The decision to abort in these cases is, to me, selfless not selfish. Every child should have access to a caring family, good health care, good education, and all the tools that provide the opportunity to grow up healthily. As a nation, we do not provide these opportunities equally and there are far more children in the foster care system than there should be — often because they are not adoptable for one reason or another (race, health, disabilities, etc).
I’m not sure the debate around abortion can ever be reconciled as people differ on the core issue of when life begins. I come from a tradition that debates whether life begins with breathing on one’s own or not. I don’t see a fetus as the equivalent (moral or otherwise) of a person outside the womb. But I know many disagree with me on this point.
Yet this said, I don’t find arguments that burden any woman with a child for whom she can’t care or condemning a child to a life without the building blocks of opportunity acceptable, and I think anti-abortion positions do this. I would find anti-abortion positions more compelling if they were tied to increasing funding for pre-natal care, early childhood education, and quality health services for all. Until this happens, I the anti-abortion position promotes quantity of lives over quality of lives.
But again, we may have to agree to disagree.
It took me all day, but I finally got around to this. Thanks for your thoughts.
Fairyflutters and Rachel,
I’m so glad you left a comment!
Though I think abortion, except in very rare cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother is in jeopardy, is wrong I do not think it should be outlawed. I do think it should be a state issue, allowing voters to decided if it is legal for their state or not.
Abortion is one of the few issues that politicians seem to stay away from. They don’t want to meet and find a middle ground. As Calandria pointed out in her Wordfull Wednesday post, “Liberals don’t want to give the impression to voters that they favor restricting abortion rights in any way. Conservatives don’t want to give the impression that they are committed to anything “less” than an overturn. Liberals are stuck on defending Roe v. Wade and conservatives on attacking it. This is what hurts our country: polemics.” More needs to be done on both sides to reduce the number of abortions but because politicians aren’t even willing to discuss it without “giving something up” it gets put aside and never changed.
When we start to judge another’s (potential) quality of life we begin to run into trouble. To deny a child a life because they would be born with a disability (physically or environmentally, ie poor) is just a step away from telling those already living with such disabilities, or those who are inconvenient to us, that their life should be terminated to. We each judge quality of life differently so to judge another’s using our own standards and telling them they don’t deserve to live wouldn’t be right or fair to that person or child.
Thanks for commenting and leaving your views. It rounds out the discussion so it not so one sided.
I have a feeling that this article was both easy and difficult to write. Thanks for your perspective and for the quotes/ links. I have long thought that the choice part was whether or not to indulge in the act…once you’re heading down the path, you have to take all that comes your way. I have never miscarried, but I came close twice. Why would anyone willingly destroy that beauty?
Well said, Cocoa! I appreciated Elder Nelson’s analogy. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
well said–both in your post and in your comments! i will have to disagree about polemics though being the thing that hurts this country (i could name worse things). that to me is an sorry excuse for fence sitting between two strong point of views and waiting for someone to say something soothing for the soul. not to say that we don’t have politicians that are polarizing but polemics was part of what got this great nation on its feet–the freedom to making arguments for and against. could you imagine the founding fathers doing that with the king. not on their life.
one more thing. i think palin tried to make some effort in discussing abortion by allowing more women to look at adoption.
I have enjoyed reading everyone’s posts on the various topics. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the abortion topic. Great dialog going on in the comments section.
I was not able to participate yesterday…crazy, hectic week and no computer time until today.
Well said, Cocoa. Life and adoption!
~Jody
Great post! I absolutely agree with your feelings about abortion and about it being decided on a state level. I just have one question,
Are we counting on the Republicans to remedy the abortion issue? Because they had 6 years of control (rep President and rep majority in Congress) and what did they do?
I am from Fallon and saw your blog on Sariah’s…I HAD to comment on this issue because it is so dear to my heart as well! I just put a post on my blog about this, but didn’t have near the amount of feedback.
I am an adoptive mother. I think that abortion should NEVER be an option because of my own personal beliefs. And, if the reason that they abort is because they can’t raise a child, do the selfless thing and let them be raised by someone who CAN give them all that they deserve. There are literally millions of couples waiting and wanting and willing to adopt at all times. Just my 2 cents. Thanks for bringing up this issue, especially since it’s so close to the elections.
wonderfully done. i hadn’t read that article yet, as my ensign subscription lapsed during the month of october. (oops.) powerful. i think it is so sad the way that the world has twisted this to sound like a wonderful thing to most people. they call evil good and good evil.
Thanks for your post – I am Pro-life as well and loved the quote from John Calvin – but that could be because I am a of the Reformed faith. I also think that adoption should be the option of choice – it took me a long time to carry to full term – and miscarrying was very painful – we fortunately were finally able to have children, but adoption was on the list – if things were not going to work out.
Thanks for you honest post.
Excellent post. I cannot agree more.
I have written on this topic several times now. They are not wednesday posts, but I will leave a link anyway.
HI! I just posted about my own abortion on my blog (I linked to it.) I am now pro life as I know the consequences of an abortion on one’s life. Please go read my story and see why it does matter! Thanks! -Becky R in NJ
sorry, I did not realize Courtney already added my blog to your link. So sorry! -becky R in NJ
Good on you for doing something so brave as to stand up against abortion.
I am taking a break from school with my son, and happened across your blog. I absolutely loved the article by Mr. Nelson. It was so beautifully stated! I too am against murdering children. Born or unborn. – Thanks for your blog!