Since I forgot...

I forgot in blog 6 and 8 to post on my blog.

For blog 6, I answer Kris' devil's advocacy question on my own blog, F*** Obamacare.  I further expounded on my original argument of the unconstitualism and complete travesty that is the so called Affordable Healthcare Act.  Affordable my ass.

I also commented on Matthew Schultz's article on the up coming elections, where he explained his views on Trump and Clinton.  I agreed fully with him that Clinton was an untrustworthy, "politics as usual" b****, and that Trump is just, well fucking nuts and offensive.

For blog 8, I commented on Nicole Arnold's article on why birth control should be free.  I really like this one, agreed with every point she made.  Birth control should be free, sex education needs to be better, and religious needs to stop messing with politics, especially on an issue like this where science actually has answers.  I liked it as well because it relates to my blog 7 post on abortion and why making it illegal is unconstitutional and just plain stupid.

Sorry for the language.  This class is getting me a little jaded.  I usually ignore politics and most of what is on the "news."  Thank goodness I didn't have to pay attention to Hollywood too, or I might have lost my mind completely.

Pro-choice is the real pro-life... quality of life for all.

I’m about to speak on a topic that may truly piss some of you off. If you can’t stomach a “pro-choice” view, then stop reading now. Please do not make any comments that are religious based, or emotionally charged without substance to back them up.

Why is this even a debate? What someone does with their body, as long as does not endanger the well being of another living, breathing person, or animal, is their business. Simple as that.

Let’s briefly look at some scientific facts.

The heart beat starts around the end of the 6th week. Not 18 or 21 days like some pro-life propaganda and billboards (like the ones that line the highways in FL) will try to have you believe. The sex differentiation and the development of the pituitary and pineal glands happen during the 7th week. So before then, you have a sex-less, endocrine gland-less, lump of cells with no heart beat. So any abortion before the 6th week, possibly even the 7th, is merely an interruption of biology, using science to get a desired result, just like we do with so many other things. For this reason, all abortion clinics and doctors will preform abortions up to the 7th week, which is where some draw the line and go no further.

When it comes to brain wave activity, pro-lifers like to spout off a 1962 medical journal article that said that it starts around 42 days. In 1962, the scientific instruments we used to measure brain activity were crude, and couldn’t tell the difference between electromagnetic activity from the heart and the brain. Modern neuroscience is showing that NORMAL brain activity, especially things like sleep and high voltage medium wave activity starts much later, possibly as early as 19 weeks, or as late as 32 weeks. If we debate that someone in a vegetative state with no more brain activity than what keeps their heart beating isn’t alive, why do we blanket statement the “aliveness” of an embryo? Why does “life start at conception” when it is nothing but cell division for several weeks, and there is no higher level brain activity till much later?

I believe myself to be a true pro-lifer. Not in the sense that I blanket statement that all abortion is wrong, and that all conceived babies must be born or it is murder (btw, anyone who actually believes that rape victims should have no choice but to have the baby because it is “fate” or “God’s will,” deserves to be swiftly, and squarely kicked in the face and stomach). I believe in the miracle that is life. I believe in the quality of life. I believe that one should have children only when they are financially and emotionally capable of providing a high quality of life to the child created.  Yet every year there are women who bring children into this world that they are not financially or emotional ready to take care of. Why? Because religion or misinformation has convinced them that abortion is wrong. I believe it is wrong to bring a child into this world when you can not fully support it, or when you are too young or immature to realize how much responsibility and work is necessary to properly raise a child in this world, and DO SO.

Abortion is not something I believe should be used willy nilly. No, this goes back to making wise decisions, like using condoms, and using medical contraception like birth control pills or patches, or IUDs. Yet, if a person can’t be smart enough to make these decisions, then why are we all so ok with them having a child, sometimes multiple children? I know abortion is not an easy decision to make. I’ve watched a handful of friends make this choice, and it took an emotional and mental toll. Yet all of these friends have gone on to finish their bachelor’s, one has a master’s, and they are all leading productive lives. This progress may have been slowed or stopped had they had children (which at the time they could not have financially supported, and one was not physically healthy enough to care for a child). Oh yea, and 3 of them have gone on to have children, which are now healthy and happily cared for since their mothers are more stable and healthy in all ways.

I’m not even going get into the religious debate. Let’s just say that my spiritual beliefs say that whether or not abortion is right or wrong is between you and the Universe, and that right and wrong are a very gray area with no absolutes. Judging people based on your belief in something being a sin is inappropriate, and goes against what most religious teachings teach, especially those of Jesus. Passing laws that prohibit abortion based on religious beliefs is stupid, unconstitutional, and close minded. Stop teaching abstinence and maybe teenagers won’t need abortions, at least as often. Psalm 127:3 says “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.” I agree. So starting treating them like such. Every day I see parents treat their kids like burdens and do abusive things in public, they use the TV as a baby sitter instead of spending quality time with them, and do many other things that show they are not emotionally mature and/or mentally stable enough to properly raise a child. We have approximately 31 million children on Medicaid and other welfare programs. How is this treating children like a gift? Just because your body can combine genetic material, doesn’t mean you have the ability to treat another life with the respect and care it deserves. Maybe that pregnancy is a gift from God in the form of a wake a call, a chance to make a wise, yet difficult decision, to have an abortion, then improve yourself and your quality of life so that one day you can treat that life with all the blessings of love and happiness it deserves.

Nothing is this life is black and white, at least not every single time. There are no universals. There’s even places in the bible where God kills people or endorses people to kill. When it comes to this issue, a good bit of the so called “facts” are just wrong, misinformed, or based on out dated research. If you are coming from a “one size fits all” religious point of view, that is totally ok, I just ask that you stay in your church, and practice acceptance, forgiveness, and love (which are core values of almost every religion last time I checked) and let the rest of us do what we feel is appropriate and best. It is time we started letting science have it’s due place in this debate and stopped ignoring things that make us think or dissolve our arguments. It is time we started looking at “quality of life,” and not “is it a life?” Really, we need to give each individual the right to make their own informed decision, and get out of everyone’s business. It can still be a moral/ethical issue without being a political one. Once and for all, let’s decide to let women have freedom with their reproductive system, their whole body for that matter, and let it be at that.

::dismounts soapbox::