Our columnists react to the Supreme Court declining an interim decision on a new Texas law, which restricts abortions after six weeks...
All I smell in this Texas abortion law brouhaha is politics and gamesmanship. Abortion is, of course, an age-old moral issue. Just pick your side: The morals of protecting life, or the morals of protecting the individual (woman’s) right to do with her body as she see most fit.
I am of the Millennial Generation, but as with any label, it is not One Size Fits All. The mainstream media will always portray Millennials as progressive (and not wanting to pay for things, but that is a story for another column).
I fit somewhere in there – somewhat left-of-center, to the center of moral/social issues, and pretty conservative on all the rest. To me, abortion is an issue for families; Mother and father, or for the mother and her God to work out, not governments, and especially not a random citizen, even from another state, to sue abortion providers and anyone helping a woman obtain an abortion. All the Texas law does is stoke the flames of the political battle for control of Congress in the November 2022 elections. I am sighing. --Bryan Williams
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Look at a simple dictionary definition of incest: “sexual intercourse between two members of the same family, such as a father and daughter, brother and sister.”
Look at a simple dictionary definition of rape: “sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury.”
And while on the topic of sexual intercourse, know that statistically there is a 25% probability that a woman will become pregnant if it happens during her fertile period.
The Texas anti-abortion law doesn’t give any leeway for victims of incest or rape.
If they don’t get the abortion within the six-week window, too bad.
Think about that.
Some father rapes his daughter. She is the victim. And she carries the child to term? What happens to her life, knowing, as she will that she was the object of incest and rape?
Some thug rapes an innocent woman who, perhaps, never intended to have a child or who already has several that she has trouble taking care of. Even though a crime was committed against her, she is expected to carry the child? Or what about a 12-year-old who is raped and terrified to tell her parents?
What will the lives of the people who are borne of these violent acts be like?
Yes, because I am writing these words I understand that I have the opportunity to make observations and had I been aborted, I wouldn’t. Although I am not in favor of abortion as a bizarre method of birth control, I am firmly against forcing victims of crime to do something they don’t want to do. Should the victim of incest or rape decide to go forward with the pregnancy, this should be their decision, just as they should be able to decide otherwise.
While there is a considerable amount of deserved attention on the fact that people can get cash bonuses if they behave like citizens of the former East Germany, where squealing on your neighbors—or even family members—was promoted, this making pregnancies that are the result of incest or rape seemingly normal is something that is really abhorrent.
Texas Gov. Abbott says they will “eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas.”
Sure, tell yourself that. --Stephen Macaulay