(no subject)
Possessing the office for less than two months, President Obama has already moved swiftly to undo many of Bush’s policies. The closing of Guantanamo Bay was the first flex of his executive muscle, signaling to the rest of the world that America will not stand for torture. He’s hard at work reversing other policies revenue for alternative fuel sources and stem cell research.
I was shocked however to learn that President Obama has lifted the restrictions on federal funding for the United Nations Population Fund, an organization that supports global abortion. Prior to the alleviation of the restrictions, federal funding was still going to the program in areas that supported abortion in special cases - rape, incest or danger to the woman’s life. President Obama has open the reigns for women all over the world to have a choice regardless of circumstances.
I can see the appeal of his decision. Helping out third world countries through an organization that promotes an end to poverty and AIDS is noble to say the least but how should Americans feel about it? Your tax money is potentially going overseas to pay for an abortion. As a nation that struggles with producing its own view on abortion, I find it irresponsible for America to fund such a program.
Let’s put aside the arguments for having abortions for a moment and take a look around our current financial situation. Billions upon billions of dollars are being dolled out to banks and financial companies whom seem to be doing nothing but escaping onto lavish retreats and paying out gigantic bonuses to CEOs. The Big Three are on the verge of extinction threatening to take millions of jobs with them. What money do we have to give out to third world countries when we’re on the decline ourselves?
The issue does not really come down to abortions necessarily but more towards ideology. Abortions have been around long before governments decided to play a role and will be around long after governments crumble. Instead of simply supporting abortions outright, we as a leading nation should be promoting abstinence in countries that can’t support booming populations. It comes down to the old parable of teaching men how to fish for themselves instead of doing the fishing for them. Educating is the first step to relieving third world countries from poverty. Funding abortions is simply a quick fix in places where the consequences of such actions are not fully realized.
I sympathize with the idea of choice. The right to chose gives women liberation over their own bodies, especially in parts of the world where they have little or no rights. But abortions in such places are nothing more than a veil of false hope as there are deeper problems for women who have to make such a drastic choice. Women should not have to give pregnancy under the influence of fear but rather out of high hopes in the best situations possible.
I doubt there’d few Americans who would oppose their tax money funding a program that truly liberates women rather than one does away with future generations.