Indiana

The A-Word

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

The President’s visit to Notre Dame today to  be the commencement speaker has sparked a new debate over abortion.  And anti-abortion advocates are touting a new Gallup poll that says more Americans identify themselves as “pro-life” than “pro-choice” by a margin of  51-42.   However the anti-abortion people might want to read the poll a little closer next time.

Although the poll shows more Americans considering themselves “pro-life” the poll also shows that the dominant position since 1975 has been that most people, 53 percent, think abortion should be legal in some instances, while 23 percent think it should be legal in all circumstances and 22 percent think it should outlawed altogether.

That tells me that while most people make consider themselves personally pro-life, they want abortion to remain a viable option for women.  In other words, a common sense approach; something that seems to be lacking when individuals adopt an extreme position.

Personally, I am pro-choice with reasonable restrictions such as parental consent and notification with appropriate judicial bypass and no public funding unless the life or physical health of the mother is in danger, etc.   And for those of you are going to ask me, “Abdul what if your wife was going to have an abortion against your wishes?”  My argument is that if we’re at stage,  our marriage was over a long time ago.

Of course if we would spend more time making sure people didn’t get pregnant by making sure they had access to appropriate contraception and vigorously went after the deadbeat fathers for child support collection, we could go a long way to preventing unwanted pregnancies.

And while we’re at it, how about doing a better job of taking care of the kids who are already here.  It’s one thing to form a human life chain at 30th and Meridian on  a Saturday, protest and drive back home to suburbia.  But how about coming down on a Tuesday afternoon, walking a few blocks east and mentoring or tutoring a kid whose father abandoned the family and the mom works and is never home?   That way he or she can grow up and have a much better life and abortion will be much less of an option.  What a beautiful choice!

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on May 17, 2009 (boomark / email).