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January 21, 2007

Blog for Choice Day

Monday is the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. In celebration, it's also Blog for Choice Day.

It's happened again recently: I've had to explain to someone that "pro-choice" does not equal "pro-abortion." Most people who are pro-choice believe that abortion should be safe and legal, but rarely used. My conversant didn't argue.

It's not that I was persuasive. Or charming.

I was simply correct.

I wrote about this last year, and I'll repost that below, since I'm unlikely to say it any better. I'll also add some of Jennifer's response.

Here's what I wrote last year:

When will people learn that even if you're against abortion, regulating it is better than banning it? We know a whole host of problems will arise if abortion is banned. People will force miscarriages; people will have abortions anyway. Infections will rise, maternal deaths will rise, back-alley, hotel-room surgeries will lead to arrests, disease and death.

People learned nothing from prohibition, when bootleggers made lots of potentially dangerous booze and made a ton of money. Eventually, alcohol was made legal, regulated and taxed.

People have learned nothing from banning even small amounts of marijuana, and now our jails are overflowing with people who have been caught with enough pot to enjoy in their living rooms, while sex offenders, murderers and drunk drivers are getting let off easy because there is no room for them.

Even if you're anti-choice, you have to understand that banning abortion will not make it go away. All you do is create a very dangerous society. You want to tax it, so that society sees some financial game? Offer optional counseling at clinics? Fine, but abortion absolutely needs to be safe and legal.

And here's Jennifer's response:

I believe that every human life has value, and that's why I'm the anti-death penalty and anti-abortion.

But I am also fiercly pro-choice. I'm not so big a fan of abortion. I don't think there's anything I'm less of a fan of. But as a person who lives in reality, I know that abortion has to be safe, legal and regulated. I also think it should be RARE.

If we'd like to see fewer abortions (ahem, I'm talking to you, Dubya), then let's make sure kids know all about contraception. Abstinance education makes adults feel better because they'd rather discourage the children from having sex than tell them the safer way to do it. But it's just like that song that came out when I was in high school said, "People are still having sex. Lust keeps on lurking." Face it: you can tell a group of teenagers with raging hormones not to have sex, but the second you leave the house, they're going to go at it on your bed.

Arm the kids with education and we will most definitely see fewer abortions. If we don't educate, and then we outlaw, we are going to have some terrible kind of mess on our hands.

Let's all take our blinders off and see things for what they really are.

Well said.

Please consider supporting NARAL Pro-Choice America and/or Planned Parenthood. They don't just help people who need to make hard choices, they help people understand how they can go about avoiding the need to make those choices.

Also, I'm sure that Feministing and Pandagon will have good coverage. And please read Biting Beaver's account of being denied emergency contraception after a condom broke. That's another abortion that could have been avoided.

This argument isn't about pro-choice vs. pro-life, or even about pro-choice vs. anti-abortion. It's about pro-choice vs. anti-choice, and it's about informed choice vs. withholding information.

Posted by josh at January 21, 2007 06:58 PM

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