Right to Birthers Strike in Indiana

Call it the Right to Birth, the belief that life starts at conception, you have to bear the baby to term and then you're on your own, the two of you. That's what's happening these days as social programs are cut and, in celebration of the appointment of right wingnut Alito to the supreme court, the Indiana legislature is obliging. Under their new law, women seeking an abortion would have to be told that life begins at conception.

Now here's the high-sounding scenario in its gritty reality: A frightened woman quite possibly torn between the thought of bearing a child she can never support financially or that was sired by the woman's own relative or rapist now has to listen to a sermon mandated by millionaire men in the Indiana legislature about how she's committing murder by killing the living thing in her belly. Never mind that a nematode has more nerve endings or brain tissue, never mind that we took away the option of over-the-counter morning after medication and she has no health insurance to see a doctor for a prescription. We are going to impose our morality play on the woman just because it's the Christian thing to do, never mind what religious belief she may hold. Then we'll forget all about helping our fellow man, about selling our riches and giving them to the poor, about charity and love. The slut got knocked up. She deserved it. Nothing will ever come of the little bastard but we don't care. We did the right thing by saving its life.

This is not right to life. Right to life would cherish all phases of existence. The woman might have state-funded day care so she can make a decent living for herself and the child. The child's chance at college and the doors it opens might be increased by funding more incentives for low-income students and by making our schools something better than the third-rate cesspools they've become. They might fund job training for the woman to help her make a better life, including better housing. They might have allowed morning-after contraception. Instead, they mandate a sermon at one of the most emotional moments of the woman's life then vote to cut any program that might have helped her raise the child. That is right to birth, not right to life. After you're born, you're on your own.

It's ironic that the party that favors keeping abortion legal and as unrestricted as possible is also the party of the right to life. We believe in helping those who need it and yes, using tax money to do so. We believe in education as the best way to prevent unwanted pregnancy and the best way to improve one's standing in life. We believe in helping single parents live, in day care, and in contraception to keep unwanted pregnancies from happening in the first place. We believe that a good portion of the negative psychological effects of abortion are imposed on a woman from outside, from useless sermons stating that "life begins at conception" and "fetuses can feel pain". To us, what happens after birth is much more important than what happens before. We liberals believe in a right to life.

Our opponents simply seek to mandate birth.