Blog for Choice
The official theme/ question for this year's blog for choice is: "What is your top pro-choice hope for President Obama and/or the new Congress?"
Well, truth be told, I'm not really all that up on abortion law. I liked what our current President had to say about it in his last debate with McCain though:
. . . I am somebody who believes that Roe versus Wade was rightly decided. I think that abortion is a very difficult issue and it is a moral issue and one that I think good people on both sides can disagree on.
But what ultimately I believe is that women in consultation with their families, their doctors, their religious advisers, are in the best position to make this decision. And I think that the Constitution has a right to privacy in it that shouldn't be subject to state referendum, any more than our First Amendment rights are subject to state referendum, any more than many of the other rights that we have should be subject to popular vote.
So, I suppose I would like these views put into law: a superceding federal "right to choose" if you will, not subject to state laws, such as South Dakota's proposed abortion ban, or the various laws designed to chip away at the right to choose such as: parental notification required, mandatory waiting periods, mandatory ultrasounds, mandatory utility laws, etc.
While it would be an inconvenience for someone with the money to travel from South Dakota to North Dakota, there are some women for whom it would be impossible to go out of state to get an abortion.
Also, bear in mind, I'm not saying that I'm pro-abortion (as McCain referred to the pro-choice movement throughout the previously quoted debate). Pro-choice is exactly that: a choice. And many people decide to carry their child to term, whether or not it remains their child once born. Adoption is a noble path, and not nearly enough families in this nation choose it.
I hope that both our new President and Congress re-establish comprehensive sex education in the schools. Heck, it's what kept me celibate for many years. Abstinence is part and parcel of comprehensive sex education, while abstinence-only education is leading to such wonders as teen anal sex without protection, because it won't lead to pregnancy.
In conclusion (I suppose I've rambled enough on the topic, and I have other things that need attention today too.), I look forward to some sanity and pragmatism in Washington regarding reproductive rights during, at least, the next two years.