Who Wins in Abortion When Neither Side "Plays Fair"


Abortion rights people like me have always been ageist at the tactics used by so the so called Right to Life. They shout prayers and show ghastly pictures to young women with no experience at dealing with such harassment. They used to physically block entrances to clinics until enough were arrested and convicted to make them stop. In this way they do not "play fair."

Before Roe, parts of abortion rights did not "play fair" either. Hospitals had wings filled with young women who had acquired inflections getting illegal or home abortions. The book called "Jane" told of self-trained women performing an estimated 11.000 abortions in Chicago. They were part of the health community and heard of others in Chicago doing abortions including doctors who moon lighted with a side illegal practice. My elderly friend in Fargo who spent his teen age years on the street said everyone knew which doctors with offices attached to their homes did abortions.

With laws in some states prohibiting abortion and poor women unable to afford travel out of state, a new team is emerging which, I predict, will, like the right-to-life crowd, not play fair. This will not be licensed doctors and clinics which have too much to lose by pushing their luck against prohibition laws. There is another group with little or nothing to lose and who has at its disposal ways to get abortions to hundreds of thousands. These are people providing abortion pills to women. 

Even though the majority of abortions are now done by pills, the practice is far more common in Europe. This suggests the U. S. is still in the early stages of pill use. The book I'm reading, After Dobbs; How the Supreme Court Ended Roe but not Abortion, explains the role of a group called, Shout Your Abortion. This group is committed to making information about the pill available, not through medical channels, but by communication in the culture. The goal is to inform the general public about the safety and convenience of the pill but to also make it available through a variety of channels, too many to be successfully policed and monitored. 

Anti abortion has always been big government. When the distribution of pills becomes even bigger than government it is game over. 

  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time to Forget the Christian Nation Thing

Image
While women are forbidden from being priests/preachers in some branches of Christianity thank goodness they are not forbidden from writing and lecturing about Christianity. A great article about the "Christian nation" notion shows us the U.S. is not a Christian nation and hopefully never will be. It is written by a woman with nerve and was published on a very Christian site, Christian Post.  Among the pilgrims were a few that wanted to establish a utopian Christian society. Some of their brethren stayed behind in Europe hoping the push aside worldly forces there and bring sinners to God. Today, whether it is the anti abortion, anti gay/trans, anti immigration or the put prayer back in schools branch there are those who want a version of what some pilgrims wanted, a utopian Christian society. The pilgrims were disappointed. Today's Christian utopians will be also. Here is why. The children of pilgrims did not believe the same things as their parents. Parents were roundly d...
Read more

Ancient God, Bel (Baal), the Main Character in an Ancient Play

Image
In a British museum is a preserved stone tablet from Babylon. It dates to about 2,000 BCE. Someone labored patiently to inscribe an entire passion play featuring the god Bel. I reiterate this is a stone tablet, not a recopied papyrus. The play begins with the god Bel arrested by soldiers and taken off the stage. He reappears at a trial in the Hall of Judgement. Bel is innocent but is sentenced to death. In the next scene Bel is accosted by a mob. He is despised and rejected. The actor playing Bel is then taken by guard to a hilltop in a sacred grove. Two criminals are taken with him. One of these is released. The the audience then leaves the theater and follows the actor Bel and his guards to the top of a hill where the death scene is enacted by hanging from a tree. The audience returns to the theater for the dramatic final scenes. The dead Bel is stripped and prepared for burial. On a theatrical hill to the side of the stage is a tomb where the body is placed. A stone is rolle...
Read more

Who Suffers from a "Hardened Heart"

Image
Some years ago on this blog there was a discussion about what the Bible calls "The hardened heart." The "hardened heart" was the explanation given for why people like me cannot accept the tenets of Christianity. We are unable to believe there are floating spirits and gods or imaginary places people go when the die. Now, a prominent Christian preacher and author has given us a way to diagnose the "hardened heart." It contained some surprises.  Rev. John Piper, who spoke about the hardened heart, said we can see this in a person who lacks "ordinary tenderness and compassion." He went on to describe the characteristics of a person without the affliction of the hardened heart. A healthy person displays empathy and sympathy. Those with the hardened heart are like stone. Jesus wanted compassion for the poor. The hardened heart discussion referred to atheists only if they are sinners and then it was indirectly. Sin, Piper said, hardens one's heart a...
Read more