Ask Auntie Pinko
August 29, 2002

Dear Auntie Pinko,

What's the deal with the 'abortion' issue? Is it really that all these Rightistas care about all these unwanted children being forced to be born (are they rushing to adopt them?) or is it a smokescreen they have invented to start controlling everyone's lives?

Francesca from Texas

 
Dear Francesca,

First off, in the interests of full disclosure, I'll explain my views on abortion:

I don't believe it should ever happen, except to save a pregnant woman's life. That it does happen is a tragedy-- tragedy that a conscientious, technologically- and medically-advanced, resource-rich, life-affirming society should be exerting every effort to prevent.

And there are millions like me, Francesca, on both the left and the right, who share the feeling that every time a developing human being is turned away from life, our species loses something incalculable in value. For us, it is not about control, political or moral, it is about humanity and what we should be and can be. A flip dismissal of those who oppose abortion as control-obsessed not only fails as a rhetorical tactic, it adds yet another brick to the wall preventing the dialogue that is the only way out of this impasse.

Are there people whose opposition to abortion is rooted in the need to make others conform to a theology/ideology they do not share? Of course there are, and they too are part of that wall that keeps us from preventing abortions. But there are many, many more who see the tragedy of abortion in human terms, and who have made a commitment to stopping that tragedy.

Unfortunately, what virtually everyone on both ends of the issue cannot accept is the real price of stopping the tragedy. On each end of the issue are people willing to pay only part of the cost. On one end we have those willing to allocate the resources that will help us find reliable contraception and make it universally available and teach everyone to use it responsibly--but they are not willing to make the ideological commitment to the standards of sexual behavior and responsibility, and the social and legal sanctions that will be required to uphold those standards. On the other hand we have those willing to trade one tragedy for another by enforcing draconian legal sanctions to save potential lives at the expense of despair, suicide, accidental death, and vast costs in law enforcement and courts.

And neither side wants to face the real costs of eliminating abortion:

1. Universally available, safe contraception and a population that understands all the physical and mental health aspects of active sexuality.

2. A cultural value for sexual abstinence among youth, responsible sexual behavior among adults, and childbearing/rearing in the context of committed family units with legal and social protections in place.

3. An economy that allows any adult willing to work any full-time job to support a child and provide it with health care, safe housing, nutritious food, decent clothing, and quality education.

4. A safety net that enables families disrupted by death, illness, unemployment, or dissolution to provide security and economic necessities for the children.

When all four of those conditions obtain, abortion will be virtually nonexistent. Until they do obtain, the tragedy of abortion will continue. "Legal" or "illegal," it will continue. Auntie Pinko is old enough to remember before Roe v. Wade, when abortion was "illegal," and the tragedy of developing lives aborted was compounded by the tragedy of women dying in septic back-alley facilities or bleeding to death from self-induced abortions.

In short, Auntie Pinko is anti-abortion. Anti-abortion enough to never, ever be satisfied until there is no abortion--"legal" or "illegal," except ever-increasingly rare procedures to save a mother's life during a wanted pregnancy gone disastrously wrong.

If that equates to "controlling everyone's lives" Francesca, you are welcome to overlook my life's work and effort to advance economic and social self-determination for all Americans, to promote the power of the poor and disadvantaged in the political process, to protect the fundamental rights guaranteed to all by our Constitution. You can call me a "Rightista," if you like, and write me off.

But the Democratic Party has been my political home all my life, and I have found its agenda large enough and varied enough to support even when I differ with the Party's stance on one or more issues. Even when they are as important as this issue. It would be nice if fellow-Democrats, or even "Leftistas" would do me the favor, in return, of respecting the sincerity of my views even if they do not share them.

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