Forcing this issue never solved it, nor will it
Manhattan: I respect the often eloquently argued, intellectually honest and impassioned statements of those who consider the killing of innocent human life abhorrent in all its forms, including the termination of early pregnancies. I am also a Roman Catholic who would likely have never considered an abortion myself unless it was medically necessary. However, I regard the proposed infringement on women’s and families’ fundamental right of privacy to make such a personally difficult decision an example of government intrusiveness at its most extreme as well as a violation of the separation between church and state.
There are genuine religious and moral disagreements about whether abortion is indeed murder and the question is whether one can impose a particular view on others in the form of judicial and legal mandates. Should the state, acting as a theocracy, have the right to force any woman to carry an unchosen pregnancy to term, especially if she has been raped or the victim of incest?
My own grandmother almost died in the 1920s when her birth control failed and my grandfather refused to consider adding another child to the family at the time. Since she felt obliged to “obey” her husband, as did many married women of her era, she believed she had no other choice, but safe options were unavailable to her. One hundred years later, we are on the verge of subjecting women to similar risks again, especially those with limited financial means.
Through education and contraception, we can work toward the goal of making abortions more rare, but outlawing them outright and thereby making them unsafe again is itself an unconscionable choice.