RU486

On this issue of abortion...I think the issue of a woman's right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy by making to choice to have an abortion should be considered from various perspectives. Whether or not abortion is a good choice or a moral/ethical choice is different from whether or not it should be a legal choice. For a lot of people, this difference is difficult to understand. If something is bad, then they believe it should be forbidden by law.

This is flawed thinking though. We make distinctions all the time between what we believe should or should not be legal, entirely apart from whether or not we believe it to be moral.

For example, I believe it is morally and ethically wrong for a woman or man who is married to commit adultery by having sex with someone other than their spouse. I do not believe that those who do commit adultery should be prosecuted through the criminal justice system.

I also believe that smoking is wrong, but as long as smokers do not infringe my right to breathe clean air, I do not believe that the private act of smoking should be forbidden by law.

I also oppose the use of drugs and of drinking to the point of repeated intoxication, yet I believe that I can oppose these vices more effectively by supporting adequate treatment programs than by putting alcoholics or addicts in jails.

Would anyone accuse me of being pro-adultery, pro-smoking, or pro-drugs/alcohol, merely because I believe that they are either matters left to individuals that are none of my business or that they can be opposed more effectively using strategies other than the criminal justice system?

Similarly, there are many individuals who strongly oppose abortion on moral grounds, and could never conclude that it was the right choice to make, but feel that it is not a choice than can be compelled by force of law. I think I am clearly pro-choice, in that I believe in leaving the decision to the woman, but I don't consider myself pro-abortion. I think that a majority of people in this country feel similarly, whether they oppose abortion on religious grounds or not. Most would no more support legislating this belief onto others than passing laws to require anyone else to take up membership in their churches.

Those who wish to keep the government out of legislating the most personal of biological functions, whatever they may believe for themselves, see themselves in the moderate middle planted firmly between two extremes.

I think most people are somewhere in between the far right of the Christian Coalition, and the Far left of Communist biological doctrine. And regardless of what our own opinion about abortion may be, it is obvious most dont want government to have our hired politicians pass more laws to force their opinions onto anyone else who might want to make a different choice with her own body. The decision about what is right and what should be legislated are separate and distinct issues.

This is why this debate over Ru-486 is so tough to argue. I think I, like many people find abortion distasteful and tough to talk about because of my own inherent sense of wrongness about it. At least with medical abortions the process is seemingly so daunting and frightening that there is a perceived notion that the woman will stop to think about not only the moral implications but quite simply the strain her body will undergo. While I fully realize this is not valid argument for debate, as I am merely justifying an alternate method to implant my personal sense of "wrongness" on another, the ramifications of such a seemingly "easy" way out is a little frightening to my sense of morality. But once I start down this path, I have to come back to the blatant and blessed fact that I in fact will never be a woman (baring some unfortunate accident I dont want to think about). And I will never be equipped to fully understand the complete social, emotional, and hormonal ramifications of this issue, and as such, my sense of "wrongness" means just about squat in the whole argument. So after All this ranting I come again to the conclusion that..."I don't know"
I know that I could never back a candidate who is openly in favor of dictating his or her moral agenda on another's reproductive rights. And on the issue of RU-486, as distasteful as it may be, it is simply another form of choice for a woman to make and as such I feel confident to leave that choice in their hands.