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If You Trust Women You Support Roe v. Wade

142 comments If You Trust Women You Support Roe v. Wade

Today marks the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that held that the relationship between a woman and her doctor is a private one that should not be subject to government interference.  The ruling declared that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution extends a right to privacy “broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate a pregnancy.”  This legalized abortion in all states.  But it was a qualified legalization, one subject to the “important state interests in regulation.”

While that may be a fair summary of the holding of Roe, it fails to touch on the scope and impact of the decision, let alone the state of abortion rights and access today.  For example, we see the impact of Roe in public schools as anti-abortion advocates fight for abstinence-only sex-education programs.  We see the impact of Roe in international aid efforts as abortion-opponents try to tie funding for health programs abroad to a commitment to an abstinence-only agenda.  And last but not least we see the impact of Roe as this country lurches toward some kind of domestic health care reform.

Whatever your personal, moral view on the voluntary termination of a pregnancy, Roe v. Wade reminds us that abortion rights extend well-beyond that colloquial understanding of abortion into issues of loss for many women and significant, difficult decisions that are never treated lightly.  Issues such as miscarriage extraction and selective termination, procedures that Roe protects.  It is that complex and compassionate understanding that drove Justice Harry A. Blackmun’s opinion and one that is severely lacking in the current opposition to reproductive health services.

So as we mark this anniversary I ask you to think of the women in your life.  Your grandmother.  Your mother.  Your sisters, friends, daughters, nieces.  Do you trust them?  Because if you do you should support choice and you should support Roe.

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11:08AM PST on Feb 11, 2010

Thank you June K. for the following:

I do work for sex-education so women will know how to protect themselves. I do pay for my birth control. If you want to pay for unwanted children, support orphanages, adopt, foster, if you want to pay for them what is stopping you? You want to pay for unwanted children, while the rest of us don't see enough resources for the children already here. Are you willing to support an increase in taxes for all the unwanted children you want to force women to have?

Plant & protect trees for life...................

8:29AM PST on Feb 11, 2010

Rosanne, there are a lot of religions that don't think a fetus is a baby until it is born. That is why babies aren't usually baptized until they have survived outside a woman's body for a while.

You admit there are women out there who would not be good mothers, but you still believe that they should be forced to have babies against their wills? I don't understand how being forced to have babies will make the caring mothers?

I see you calling us names since we expresses a different opinion from you. Not all Pro-choice people are pro-abortion, we are working to decrease the number of abortions through education, which I wish more self called pro-lifers would try to do instead of just trying to force their religious beliefs on everyone.

Yes, I fail to acknowledge that abortion is murder; I don't believe that not carrying the potential of human life to term is murder. I am not sure what you think I expect "Pro-Life" people to fix or what you think "Pro-Choicers." broke. I do work for sex-education so women will know how to protect themselves. I do pay for my birth control. If you want to pay for unwanted children, support orphanages, adopt, foster, if you want to pay for them what is stopping you? You want to pay for unwanted children, while the rest of us don't see enough resources for the children already here. Are you willing to support an increase in taxes for all the unwanted children you want to force women to have?

7:01AM PST on Feb 11, 2010

Rosanne, how am I forcing my belief on you? Am I forcing you to have an abortion? That is as repugnant to me as forcing someone who has been raped to go through a pregnancy against her will. I don't want government deciding reproduction issues like China, I want each woman to decide for herself including you, how is this having it both ways?

Yes, and I expect everyone to pay for education, food stamps, homeless shelters, health care...

I am sorry we don't get to decide where our taxes go. If we did we would probably not be fighting two wars and GW would not have been able to start a second war. The death penalty might not exist. Are you truly pro-life? Do you conscientiously not pay your taxes for death penalty enforcement or the two wars going on?

So Pro-Choice people are both Pro-Life since we support children being born and Pro-Abortion when we don't force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term? If you want to call us both you can, but to ignore that we are both is willful blindness. If you are going to call me Pro-Abortion/Pro-Life should I call you Pro-Death Penalty, Pro-War, Pro-Slaughter Houses, Pro-Fur, Pro-Life?

You can't tell me to follow your religion or ignore the fact that I see cells, where your religion sees life and doesn't see the woman's life.

"It’s very sad to me that people who accept every man-made law ignore the fact that there may be a God who will be the judge at the end of time."

Maybe you should move to the Vati

12:52AM PST on Feb 11, 2010

June K. wrote:
A lot of pro-lifers seem to want the babies born, but the next day they are complaining about welfare, paying for education, food stamps, Head Start, child nutrition programs.... The babies don't stop existing once they are born.

So true June. All those cute, innocent & helpless babies grow up to make space for themselves. They have varying needs & wants that may or may not get filled.
My dream land thought is a world where there are only a few million people & it stays that way for the good of all.

Plant & protect trees for life.........

12:09AM PST on Feb 11, 2010

June K-You say my argument is flawed because YOU BELIEVE religious beliefs should not be forced on other people. Well you don’t get to force your beliefs on me or others who are Pro-Life. You can’t have it both ways. The difference between Pro-Choice/Pro-Abortion is so politically correct that it stinks. You want women to have a CHOICE to kill, whether the pregnancy involves promiscuity, social status, rape, incest, subservience, birth control, inconvenience, deformity, single motherhood, etc., while you expect Pro-Life people to pay for those CHOICES. A Pro-Choice person is Pro-Abortion when her CHOICE eliminates the child. You can’t tell me to change my opinion or ignore the fact that I see LIFE, where you see an unviable blob, or fetus. You can do to your body whatever you want, but don’t ask me to PAY for the destruction of your “fetus” or finance your belief system. If abortion is included in Health Care Reform, I will conscientiously object to that portion of my taxes. Choose all you want, & support the “death culture” in the United States, but leave Pro-Life people out of your “fetus lottery”. I will pray that people who don’t want children never get pregnant, because we all know that they will use abortion as birth control. It’s very sad to me that people who accept every man-made law ignore the fact that there may be a God who will be the judge at the end of time.

11:28PM PST on Feb 10, 2010

Sarah D-you post the most depressing opinions regarding abortion, yet you were adopted? Are you sorry you were not aborted? You so rudely stated that "It's your body & your choice & if someone can't handle that, then screw you". God forbid any man would "screw you" or get you pregnant, because you think a fetus is not a baby until it leaves your body. I pray no one takes you up on your offer. You show no signs of being a caring mother, but you do show signs of anger, depression, & self-righteousness. You compare an aborted child to animal meat. You call names when someone expresses a different opinion. Not all Pro-lifers are Bible thumpers & all women are NOT subservient to men. Pro-lifers aren't liars or murderers. You change the subject to sex-ed, the death penalty, meat eaters & "your rights". You fail to acknowledge that whether you believe in God or not, abortion is murder of an unborn child; a human being denied its RIGHT TO LIFE. Please furnish the stats that show the # of abortions resulting from rape & incest. You expect Pro-Life people to fix what Pro-Choicers break. If it's your body, then protect it. Be responsible and pay for your “CHOICE”. I want my taxes to pay for the "unwanted child". Health Care should NEVER include abortion services, especially if they are provided by tax dollars. There have been enough BAILOUTS. I don’t wish to pay for your poor CHOICES.

12:41AM PST on Feb 9, 2010

it is the person's choice if they want an abortion or not.
we shouldnt be barring their freedom to do what they want.
btw, not everyone is christian. therefore, not everyone abides by the same views. just because you're against something, shoudlnt allow you to stop someone else doing something they want.

4:36PM PST on Feb 6, 2010

Bull and crap!

4:04PM PST on Jan 26, 2010

first of all, pro lifers are pro lifers, not so called pro lifers . and although we cannot adopt all the children of the third world, there are charities that help. catholic charities, samaritans purse and i believe its called the invisible children. this third one is new for me. so, those of us that care do what we can. thanks.

2:28PM PST on Jan 26, 2010

I do not understand how so called pro life people can call themselves that and get worked up over an unborn fetus and yet allow millions of already born babies and children die in the third world every day without a murmour. Are these babies somehow not as deserving of life or are they the wrong colour I wonder? Sorry to be cynical but have never yet had a satifactory answer to this by any so called pro lifer.

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