Today is Blog for Choice Day. The charming and wonderful Helen Boyd (who I actually got to talk to in person this weekend, so I could fall in love with her and her husband all over) reminds me thus.
I was born and raised a Roman Catholic - and not just in name. 12 years of catholic education. Alter server. Folk musician. I have a younger brother who is an adoptee. My father was involved in the Knights of Columbus, my mother in Birthright. I had anti-abortion stickers on my guitar case in grade school. Had some things fallen differently in my life I might be speaking to you from inside a rectory somewhere.
Helen is spot-on when she talks about the economic issue - if abortion were restricted, it would only mean that the well-to-do would get their abortions quietly, by crossing state lines or country lines or visit pricey but discrete clinics. It's the poor who would be forced into the back alleys and into life threatening situations.
Personally, I am aware of a number of friends who have had abortions. Most of these are / were Roman Catholics - and I have no doubt that the church's repression along the lines of birth control and sex education contributed to these abortions.
Do I think abortion is a good thing? No way. All life is precious. But until we can be pro-contraception, pro-education, pro-equal access to care, until we can support pregnant women economically, until we as a society can ensure that children are loved, supported, and not sentenced to a life of hardship, pain, and struggle, then get the hell out of my face about abortion.
1 comment:
as a fellow catholic: right on. i was pro life until i was 18, i will admit, & it was the paradox of having 'social justice' type catholics for parents that convinced me to be choice.
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