A Political Post

I watched this PBS documentary called "God in America" which was extremely interesting.  It's basically broke down exactly how the Evangelicals became so involved and influential in conservative politics.  It's all Reagan's fault.  This explains why the relatively large community of conservative-extremists I shared a high school with seemed to worship Reagan.  Hmm.

Anyway, from watching this documentary and thinking quite a bit, I concluded that if the Right Wing wants to realistically end abortion, they have to stop treating it like a political issue and begin to understand it as a social issue.  I mean, in Iran, abortion is illegal, which is what the Right Wing wants--it wants to obliterate Planned Parenthood and clinics that offer abortions.  Okay.  Well, conversely, in Iran it is legal to sell one of your kidneys, granted that it meets certain standards.  In fact, Iran is the only country that allows the sale of kidneys. That's ridiculous, right?  Yeah, people can live with one kidney, but why would anyone be so desperate for money that they would sell a kidney?  The answer is simple:  They need the money to pay for black market drugs (that may or may not be expired), and to then pay half-ass operation, under-the-table, group of shady individuals to perform an illegal (and not to mention completely unregulated by medical professionals) abortion.  Now, you may think I am inferring this, but I am not--I have watched several documentaries and researched the issue.  Clearly, the legal status of abortion makes little difference in the existence of the procedure.

The question, then, is how does one actually put an end to abortion?  For me, it seems that Pro-Life Conservatives need to adopt some rather liberal ideals.  Starting with teaching legitimate sexual education courses in school and promoting the use of contraceptives during sex. (Notice what I did there?  I said, "promoting the use of contraceptives during sex" not "promoting sex", which seems to be a common misinterpretation of the syntax.  Please, see the difference.)  This would also included changing the legal system's attitude towards rape from "Don't get raped" to the simple, but efficient "Don't rape".  And perhaps it wouldn't hurt if everyone came to terms with the idea that women can function in the workplace just as well as men, with or without wanting to "settle down and have a family"--career motivated women can also be good mothers, just as career motivated men can also be good fathers.  Men don't have to make a choice, so why should the workplace pressure women into doing so?

Right there, I have outlined every possibly politics-related reason a woman would have an abortion, and it seems to eliminate these reasons politically, the Right Wing Conservatives should consider crossing party lines for a spell.  I will concede that there are several other reasons why a woman would want to get an abortion, but the remaining reasons boil down to social-economic and moral atmosphere and personal choice, which for the most part cannot be regulated politically.  Hence why I said abortion should be treated as a social issue earlier in this post.  And, yes, because those remaining factors cannot be regulated politically, adopting the aforementioned liberal ideals will not bring a complete end to abortion, but it is the closest thing to an end any Pro-Life advocate can realistically hope for.  And if, in the words of John Winthrop and later Ronald Reagan, America truly wants to be a "shining city on a hill" for all of society to look towards, our only concern is that we are closer to perfect than anyone else.  When it comes to abortion, this is the only way to accomplish that.