Saturday was the 38th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court decision in the case Roe v. Wade. Tomorrow is the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. where anti-abortion/pro-life activists will march to the Capitol building for their cause. I thought it was fitting that I discuss it, especially since abortion has been addressed quite a bit in the media recently [in particular with health care reform].
Abortion is one of those controversial issues that make most people vaguely uncomfortable and, in many debates, very angry. Consequently, it's difficult for something to actually being done regarding the issues surrounding abortion. Currently, neither side wants to admit that there's a stalemate.
Think about it: The media will occasionally cover a story on abortion, and the extremists on both sides of the abortion debate are cited. Each side vilifies the other, and spends the majority of their energy trying to dismantle the primary opposing claims to their stance. As far as the middle ground goes, the majority of people stand wherever is the easiest, appeasing both sides, in line enough with their philosophy about life.
I would merely like to bring to attention two major consequences of this stalemate:
1. Women are suffering at the expense of this debate. Roe v. Wade was, in fact, decided on the role of women in society. Now the reasons why women seek abortion are overlooked, and instead the opposing sides of the abortion debate rage on in their accusations against each other. In the midst of this stalemate, women are not being fully supported before and after pregnancy. For example: 38.5% of single mothers are in poverty (2009 Census data), which is a percentage that is steadily increasing. Both sides agree that there is a need, as President Obama said in his 2007 presidential campaign, "...to prevent the kinds of situations that lead to women having to struggle with these difficult decisions and we should be supportive of those efforts." Each person can interpret this statement differently, but the point is that abortion is not a sign of women being supported. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Whatever your views are, supporting women before and after pregnancy is not out of the question.
2. The driving force behind this stalemate is ignorance. People quickly form opinions on abortion from the media, their religion, their friends, their family, their age group, etc. There are not many people who actually have informed opinions on abortion. The debate has been raging on for 38 years after Roe v. Wade. Almost two decades of passionate debates has led us further and further away from the truth. My advice is to steer away from mainstream media. Figure out your reasons for your opinion [religion, feminism...] and then find the most original, unbiased sources of those reasons [example-the pioneers of feminism, church documents, etc.]. Abortion is not something that you should be apathetic about, considering it's significance in politics has been unchanging for two decades now.
That's my brief commentary on the abortion stalemate. It shouldn't have made you too uncomfortable or angry. Before the two decade mark of Roe v. Wade, educate yourself on what to do about the two major consequences of the stalemate. If you aren't from the U.S., your country probably has the exact same, if not similar, stalemate so this applies to you too!
