NOTE: This originally started as a comment to Jeff’s post Bob On Abortion, but I decided it was better as a post.
Jeff asked why Bob would care if Jeff’s wife decided to have an abortion or use contraception. Here’s my answer:
Well, the logic of the Christian right is that since life begins at conception, abortion is equivalent to the taking of a life. Hence, they believe they have a responsibility to stop it.
But in Bob's case, it's just an excuse to get votes for the GOP. If he really cared about abortion, he'd be advocating for prevention policies that are presented by liberals and even the bane of Bob's existence, Planned Parenthood.
About six months ago Bob had American Baptist pastor Tony Campolo on his show. Bob ripped him apart for stating that making abortion illegal will only "drive it underground" and that America needs an economic policy that will prevent abortions from occurring. Bob vehemently disagreed.
This is the same as disagreeing with murder, but only having policies the prosecute the act, not seek to prevent it. That's why Bob hates prevention policies: Because if you advocated for expanding the WIC program, universal healthcare, teaching about contraception, universal childcare, and other programs that would make women less likely to have abortions, we'd be voting for liberals and liberals want as many abortions as possible.
But its important to note that the Bible never said anything against abortion, despite the fact that they occurred during and even before the time of Moses. In fact, in Exodus 21:22-25, a fetus is given lower status than someone who is born. A fine had to be paid in the event of an accidental miscarriage that was the result of assault. Capital punishment didn’t occur unless the mother died (although many anti-abortion groups take out the last two verses to make it look like Moses was talking about the child dying as a result of premature birth). So even in the law of Moses, a fetus isn't the equivalent of a human life. Early Christians such as St. Augustine even advocated for 1st trimester abortions.
[UPDATE: After doing more research on Exodus 21:22-25, I've found that there is a debate as to whether verse 22 is interpreted as miscarriage, a pre-mature birth in which the child is alive at the time of birth, or stillborn. While I'll point out that the Bibles published before 1973 interpreted the verse to say "miscarriage" (coincidence?), there is still a debate on this that will probably not be resolved in our lifetimes. But my point still stands that there are no verses in the Bible that condemn abortion.]
And there is NOTHING in the Bible that says contraception is equal to taking a life. By that math, ABSTINENCE would be the equivalent of abortion, as they both prevent sperm and egg from meeting. Masturbation would be murder. But I don’t hear Bob telling men that we should fight to make jerking off illegal, or that we should be hooking up like bunnies.
In the end, all Bob cares about is getting conservatives elected to office. Which is why he doesn’t want the government to do anything about the millions of people living in poverty in America (many of whom are STARVING).
Why he doesn’t want universal health care which would, amongst other things, prevent miscarriages, infant death, death in adults and alternatives for war. Bob never mentions the need for any of this, despite the fact that they are “life issues.”
Because, as I said before, advocating for those policies would make you a liberal.
It’s just too bad Bob would rather be conservative than Christian.
3 comments:
DJ,
You're not at all "stealing my thunder". :-) I'm glad you wrote the post, because I did want to make yet a couple more points about Bob and abortion.
First, you mentioned that Bob is against prevention policies. Democrats routinely call for such policies to help make abortion "safe, legal, and rare". On the show yesterday, Bob replied to this statement by saying, "the left is trying to get out as many abortions as they can." Obviously, this a complete straw man attack. Bob has set up this phantom entity known as "the left" and then says they want to go around performing abortions. If Bob can find one doctor who would rather perform an abortion than prescribe an oral contraceptive, I'd like to meet him. I don't believe such a person exists. Furthermore, I believe a doctor can make more money prescribing birth control pills in the same time it takes to perform a complex surgical abortion.
Second, Bob, and many other anti-choice zealots, equate abortion with murder. If that were true, then Bob should also be advocating for stiff penalties for women who get abortions. The logic is simple. If a woman hires a hit man to kill her husband, then both the woman and the hit man are guilty of murder. As such, if a woman hires a doctor to kill her unborn child, then both the woman and the doctor should be guilty of murder. Would Bob actually advocate for mandatory life sentences for women who get abortions? Of course he wouldn't. Because deep down, Bob knows there is a difference between a self-aware individual and a fetus who has yet to take a breath of air.
Jeff Want to expand on your comments. If a fertilized egg is to be protected then to take the idea to its logical extreme do we need pregancy police to monitor the mother's behavior to see that she is eating right and not doing anything jeopardizing the heatlh of the developing fetus. After all, the fetus is totally depended on the mother for nine months . If a mother does something to create a health risk ( say packing away a case load of Twinkies every hour ) should she be arrested? I'm a liberal and I don't like the idea of an abortion. I want an abortion to be the LAST method for an unwanted child. And should a woman always be pregant until menopause because if you think about it if a woman decides not to get pregnant she is in effect "aborting" potential children. If anything BOB should be gung ho on supported birth control info.
Great post. Jewish law does not consider abortion murder. This fact needs to be repeated to christians that think otherwise.
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