Pro-Choice for Ever!

Now even though I am one of those women who believe that all women should have the choice when it comes to bearing a child, I also have grave misgivings about abortion. I have to admit that I am a parent who has had an illegal abortion and a legal abortion. I am also a woman who doesn’t believe in amniocentesis as a prelude to abortion. So, I was particularly taken with Melinda Henneberger’s Op-Ed in the New York Times in which she takes the Democrats to task for not being a Big Tent as to the Abortion Issue and for their reaction to Carhart in particular.

Though I am Canadian, I was raised in the United States and for the most part I am a creature of its Culture. Also, I have struggled with this Culture and I pride myself on recognizing misogyny and paternalism when I see it. Justice Kennedy’s opinion in Gonzalez v. Carhart is a clear example of legal misogyny and paternalism at its worst. The idea that women don’t know what is best for their families, themselves, their lives, and their health is so insulting as to be beyond all notions of patriarchal control in this century. That a women’s life shouldn’t be a consideration in a medical procedure is beyond the pale.

As to the “Democratic” and “Pro-Choice” response to this assault on women’s health and life it is clearly consistent with the Democratic and Pro-Choice stance: Women should have a choice and their lives and health should be part of the decision making process that they and their doctors should take into consideration when coming to their final determination.

This position is about Choice! That strikes me as clearly Big Tent and not limited to the position of the “Right-to-Life” which is not about choice and is about a limited tent.

I know many a “Right-to-Lifer” who is “Anti-Choice” and consistently votes that way, and yet admits privately that they would have an abortion if they had to as their circumstances would be different from the usual and average woman who has an abortion.

So, though I believe that abortion is not an absolute and I certainly disagree with some reasons to have an abortion, I trust women and their physicians to make that decision. And I believe that is why my position and that the position of most Democrats is “Pro-Choice” is because they believe in “CHOICE.” The Democratic Party as I see it does not believe in dictating an absolutist position but in allowing a nuanced and Big Tent position. I don’t know of any Democrats or Pro-Choice Advocates who would insist that a woman should have an abortion, but I know many a “Right-to-Lifer” who would deny a woman choice.

I know many a Democrat who votes consistently for Democrats who are not absolutists on the Abortion Question. I don’t know any Pro-lifers who vote for anyone other than Abortion abolitionists who have such a nuanced vote.

So, I have to wonder just which party is the Big Tent on the Abortion Question?

Who is Ms. Henneberger talking about, or is she just talking shit and obfuscation?

JMHO!