Richard H. Escobales Jr. writes in the New York Times today that “Even if one had no regard for the human life of the fetus wantonly destroyed in abortion, Roe has set a dangerous and destructive precedent.”
Wantonly?
Wantonly?
The Oxford Modern English Dictionary defines “wanton” as:
1 licentious; lewd; sexually promiscuous
2 capricious; random; arbitrary; motiveless
So what does Mr. Escobales have in mind? That doctors performing abortions get stiffies as they do it? Or that doctors just randomly walk up to women, anesthetize them, slice them up and remove their embryos randomly, for no reason at all?
No one (unless there’s a kink out there I haven’t heard of) has a lusty and lewd attitude toward abortion. Abortions are performed for reasons. Anyone who wants to understand the social issue abortion needs to confront the existence of those reasons.
One meaning for the adjective “wanton†whose adverbial form “wantonly†I used in my letter published in the March 19, 2006 New York Times is this: “2. a. Mercilessly cruel, merciless:â€
This definition of “wanton†appears in the New College edition of “The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language†Houghton Mifflin (1976).
If elective abortion is not “mercilessly cruel,†I don’t know what is.
Well, then, Richard Jr., maybe you don’t know what is.
The popular book on economics, Freakonomics explains the analysis that reduced rates of crime are due to the legal availability of abortion, and the resulting reduction in the number of unwanted children who develop into desperate, angry mitfits.
It’s ironic to me that the very same people who talk about how terrible, awful, inhumanly cruel it is for a child to be raised in a single family household will then turn around and insist that single pregnant women be forced to give birth to children who will be raised by a single parent.
Consider that abortion may be mercifully cruel, not mercilessly cruel.
Hmmm, what else could be “mercilessly cruel?” Oh, wait. I know what is!
An economic system that virtually dooms poor, young, single mothers to a life of poverty!
Any employer who hires a woman for less money than she could raise a family on!
You really want to do whatever it takes to stop abortions? Raise the minimum wage!
Oh yes, but we need to make sure that single motherhood is sufficiently miserable to deter women from having premarital sex and punish those who do, now don’t we? And golly, birth control and abortion just let those women off the hook!
Abortion is not birth control for idiots!
How about Taking responsibility for your actions! Wow! What an incredible idea. But thats too difficult so I’ll save myself from an unwanted dependent by sucking their brains out!
Yeah! That will solve this world’s problems. Lets euthanize everyone else who is going to be a burden on society also like old people, disabled people, it’ll be easy cause they can’t defend themselve’s.
That is a liberals logic!
“Let’s euthanize everyone else who is going to be a burden on society” you say? Alrighty then Rob, let’s start with YOU: Self-righteous, judgmental, intolerant and hypocritical… You, with your hateful attitude and purposeful ignorance, are an enormous burden on society yourself! Shame on you!!
I’ll tell you what happened to “personal responsibility.” It turned into a slogan for people who want to blame others rather than doing what it takes to prevent abortions.
Are you willing to do whatever it takes to stop abortions? No. So get off your high horse.
Does comprehensive sex education at an early age and unfettered access to contraceptives prevent abortion? Yes.
Do you support it? No.
Would raising the minimum wage to a living wage for a single-parent family and providing government-funded child care prevent abortions? Yes.
Do you support it? No.
If single parents were respected in society, would it prevent abortions? Yes.
Do you respect them? No.
Does the Plan B contraceptive allow women to avoid pregnancy without destroying a brain or stopping a beating heart (which is what you say you object to)? Yes.
Do you support it? No.
Oh, no. When you say “personal responsibility,” what you really mean is that you want single parenthood, poverty and disgrace to be the punishment for pre-marital sex. What you really mean is that you want women to live in ignorance and fear of their own body. And you know damn well that abortions will result, and you’re fine with that. You just don’t want those abortions to be safe or legal, because that’s not scary enough for you.
Oh, you know it’s a dicey game. Alcohol and peer pressure wipe away the fear, but not the ignorance. But that’s a chance you’re willing to take. Oh yes, you’re against alcohol and peer pressure too, even though they’ve been part of teenage life since time immemorial. But dealing with reality is too high a price for you to pay to prevent abortions. Hard, cold reality is not for you. It’s for terrified young women to cope with, all on their own.
Sure, you and your church buddies could prevent unplanned pregnancies and abortions by making sure all the at-risk young people in your community had access to condoms and knew how to use them.
But hey, screw the community, right? It’s all about “personal responsibility.”
You wasted alot of time to write all that just to convince me you are still an IDIOT!
You Basically proved my point. If you teach people not to have sex until they are ready for a child then all of the problems you listed would’nt exist.
No, instead let’s teach them how to have sex at a young age so they can conceive a child then suck there brains out. Remember your mother chose life! Even if she was raped or whatever excuse you have for murder, a life is a life.
Oh and by the way single parents are respected in society thats why there are so many of them, 20 times the amount of the 1960′s when it wasn’t accepted. So basically all of your “politically correct” crap is degrading society.
Oh, THAT’S making sense, Rob. You’re really saying that the way to encourage more people to become parents, instead of having abortions, is to encourage widespread disrepect of people who become parents, instead of having abortions?
Sure, Rob. Sure.
And the best way to encourage people to work hard at their jobs is to pay them poor wages too, right?
Robert Heinlein said “Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.”… it is pretty damned hard to tolerate sometimes though!!
The facts are that women make just as much, if not more than men, in the same career fields. For example my wife is a Physical Therapist, and makes just as much as her male co-workers.
Another fact is only eight percent of people who simply graduate from high school, and wait until they are over twenty to have a child, live in poverty. So, teaching our kids that it is unaceptable to have sex until marriage, and drop out of High school goes along way toward a better life.
Do you disagree?
I know people make mistakes, but condoning those mistakes dosen’t help. If you give a child a condom they will use it! Once you scramble the egg, It can’t be unscrambled. What happens when they want to have sex again, but don’t have a condom? I’m sure all of that sex education will keep their pant’s on!
Well, your time has been well spent, because you have proven to me what a GENIUS you are.
Congratulations, you’ve discovered the liberal conspiracy to teach people about birth control so they will conceive a child and have an abortion! Takes a real genius to unravel that plot!
I mean, if it weren’t for us liberals teaching young people how to have sex, they wouldn’t figure it out until their late twenties or early thirties when they had a good job with health benefits. Not like they would learn about it from their friends, or the movies or anything.
Oh, right, the sex in the movies and on TV is all part of the liberal abortion-increasing plot too! It’s got nothing to do with capitalism (which is good and wholesome) or the fact that people are willing to pay to watch entertainment with sexual themes. Oh, no! The only reason people like movies with nudity is because they’re brainwashed by Hollywood liberals as part of the abortion-increasing plot!
So, “if we just taught people not to have sex until they are ready for a child,” none of the problems I listed would exist? Sure. Even married couples who don’t want a pregnancy that month, Rob? Married couples who don’t want a child yet don’t have sex? Married couples can’t choose to stop having children after two or three unless they stop having sex? Sure.
But hey, let’s test your hypothesis by checking in on countries in recent history that absolutely forbade sex until that culture decided a woman ought to bear a child. Afghanistan under the Taliban, for example. (Too bad it doesn’t exist any more, sounds like the kind of place you would have enjoyed living.) No problems, right? Well, not exactly. Young, unmarried women still turned up pregnant–even without liberal abortion conspiracies. Inconceivable! But they got a different choice than us hand-holding liberals give them in America. They could self-abort with stone age technology before they started to show, or get stoned to death by male relatives in a so-called “honor killing.”
But you know Rob, if it weren’t for those honor killings, young women just would not take “personal responsibility!” I’m sure that’s how it’ll be when you and the rest of the American Taliban imposes Christian Sharia law in America. And I’m sure you’ll love it!
Nobody disagrees that abortion kills a human being at an early stage of life but most people who oppose abortion support war which also kills many people, most at a time in life when it is much more traumatic for them and their families. I could respect those against abortion if they also were against war. We easily come up will reasons why killing in a war is not murder and not punishable except possibly by the victorious enemy. Those against abortion also accept the “collateral damage” of innocent people being killed in war. When in nature 30-50% of all embryos experience miscarriage (natural abortion) why do those that their mothers abort deserve special protection? I personally support limits after the first trimester or for reasons such as gender selection. I pity the child that is forced to be born to a parent forced to be that child’s parent.
I can speak only for my Church, which is the 1.5 billion that comprise the Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II and his successor have both spoken adamantly in opposition to this war. The Cathechism of the Catholic Church, by which all members are to adhere, states “The fifth commandment forbids the intentional destruction of human life. Because of the evils and injustices that accompany all war, the Church insistently urges everyone to prayer and to action so that the divine Goodness may free us from the ancient bondage of war. All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war.” So who are these pro-war people you take issue with? Perhaps your pity would be better placed with the poor, misguided mother-to-be who, because of 33 years of cultural conditioning, has been convinced that it is somehow acceptable to kill her unborn child.
“Who are these pro-war people you take issue with?”
Are you actually unaware of a single pro-lifer that supported Bush’s war? Are you really claiming there weren’t any?
Pro-life, pro-war is the very essence of Bush’s political base in the United States. You know that very well.
You are LYING, Trisha. You are violating the Ten Commandments. Beg your God for forgiveness, Trisha, before it’s too late!