Monday, June 1, 2009

Dr. Tiller

Let me declare a few things if they are not immediately obvious:
  1. I am a left-wing, liberal nut of a Democrat.
  2. I am a Christian.
No, the two are not incompatible.

What the really fervent Christian pro-life (anti-choice really) people simply do not get is that no one actually wants to have an abortion. No one can come to the conclusion to have an abortion easily unless they are completely dead inside, emotionless. It is a decision that will haunt you for the rest of your life; it is as emotionally and morally painful as it is physically. It is an act of desperation. Anyone in their right mind would not want to see the number of abortions performed in this country to rise, no matter what their political or religious views might be.

Do I agree with the decision to have an abortion? No.

Do I think that a woman should have the right to choose to abort her unborn child? Yes.

Again, the two are not incompatible.

Abortion is ethically and morally horrific. But so are a lot of other things that are also legal in this country: alcohol, tobacco, gambling, the raping of our environment, slaughter of innocent animals (shooting wolves in Alaska...), and in some places prostitution and bygamy. All of them are equally abhorrent in the eyes of God yet not only are some of these act legal but sometimes condoned by the government on some level. But just because I or anyone else finds these things distasteful doesn't mean the government should be trying to outlaw them. People will drink themselves into oblivian, destroy their lives. Tobacco kills. Gambling destroys families and brings out disgusting behavior in people. And on and on...

And while I do not agree with abortion, I would never presume to take away someone's choice to have one. It's not my decision to make; it's theirs. And the decision will continue to be made even if abortion is made illegal. The criminialization of abortion will only force scared young girls into dirty alleys to be mangled with coat hangers which can result in serious infection, death, unintended sterilization. As well as the same feeling of despair and guilt that would hang over them if they were to have the procedure performed safely in a sterile environment in a clinic.

I would never presume to take conrtol over someone else's life, even if I think that they are making a bad decision. I do not possess the arrogance to dictate to someone else how to live their life.

Dr. Tiller's murder is domestic terrorism, pure and simple. He was killed in the name of the "sanctity of life." If that is not the stupidest, most hypocritical load of shit I have ever heard in my life I don't know what is.

George Carlin said it best:
"Pro-life, these people aren't pro-life, they're killing doctors, what kind of pro-life is that? What, they'll do everything they can do save a fetus, but if it grows up to be a doctor they just might have to kill it?"

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