Issue Position: On Abortion & Crimes of Omission and Crimes of Commission

Issue Position

I first began to hear of abortion, birth control, women's rights, and homosexuality when I was in my late teens and didn't really take not of it until I was in college. I didn't understand any of these issues much and thought they were aberations of some sort. I could not imagine a woman wanting to be anything other than a housewife and mother and I could not conceive of abortion as anything but murder and an act that no one would support. Birth control made sense to me and didn't seem like a problem and was shocked when the Church took an adamant stand against it. As I got more involved in classes I realized I had to looking into and take a stand on these issues, something I simply did not want to get it into. Ant-war and feminist movements were heating up and polarizing the nation. For the most part I avoided these debates and simply kept my opinions to myself (little changed from those originally stated) and went about my business. However, I did begin to take note and watch and listen. Over 30 years of this debate I have come to be a proponent of women in the workplace though I do believe those who want a more traditional lifestyle are severely abused by those who want a movement for women in the work place. My abortion stand has not changed much except that now I am against both legal and illegal abortion and prefer to work on a society in which any woman no matter how unfortunate or how foolish her choices can expect the culture to support her and her child through to being able to stand on their own two feet and become productive members of society. On issue of whether or not abortion is murder, I just don't know and no one has offered any sane or reasonable arguments of sufficient depth to convince me either way.

With the conventions coming the same 30 years of fruitless arguments are being aired again more as a means to polarize rather than inform the voter than as heartfelt positions or an effort to solve a problem. While everyone talks about legal abortion, no one talks about their stance on illegal abortion. Are pro_lifers in favor of it? Certainly it is a simple matter to recognize that illegal abortion is a far greated blight to the culture to legal abortion as it would create a network of support that would involve tremendous criminality and criminal networks in our communities based on defrocked doctors, self-appointed mid-wives and their criminal protectors. Such networks would likely also see drug and prostitution networks as support increasing all three problems and further degrading are communities.

The fact is I want no part of the issue. I am against both legal and illegal abortion and believe we should be working on a legal support network for women in these situations instead. However, I do think there is one situation that might cool the political heat and actually inform the public on this issue. A panel of experts made from clergy from many different religions, medical professionals, lawyers, politicians, scientists and so forth could be formed to gather the necessary research and provide proper reports. The reports could be of several forms but all must be intelligible to a high school grad: there could be a consensus by group, a majority opinion by the group with dissenting opinions as well as individual opinions all meant to represent their roles in their professions. The voters could then decide from these how they intend to vote on these crucial issues that are ultimately up to the voter

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