Anti-Choice and Pro-Life

My aunt and uncle came down to Boston yesterday and we caught A Comedy of Errors on the Common. All three of us were bored by the performance, but we powered through it and never complained. Over-acting and bawdy low-brow humor were served to all. They even worked in a 'turn your head and cough joke.' Delightful. But it was free and none of us had seen the play before.

The highlight of the night was the conversation. I think this is true of my family generally, but the vapid "how's your job?" and "what have you been up to?" questions quickly turn into political debates. I love it. I'd much prefer to talk about health care and China than my job. There's a reason I'm paid to be there, you know? I think people who love to talk about work are suffering from a mild case of Stockholm syndrome. Anyway, before we had even left the house we were arguing about abortion, and my aunt used the term "anti-choice" to describe people who usually call themselves "pro-life." Pro-life is a term, like anti-abortion, that implies those of us who think a woman (and a man) should choose for herself are anti-life or pro-abortion, which is silly, because who is actually either of those things? I think a woman has the right to choose, but I'm not pro-abortion. I don't steal out into the night and try to convince pregnant woman to have abortions. That's stupid, and pro-lifers can't think that's true.

But I think labeling someone "anti-choice" is the same thing. People who think it's unacceptable to have an abortion aren't anti-choice. I mean, come on, they're not fascists. So all the terms that we currently use to label each other are unacceptable. Plus, aren't all of those labels just a form of name-calling? Can't we all do better than that?

Here's my name-calling free argument in support of a woman's right to have an abortion. Life isn't as sacred as everyone thinks. Yes, I like being alive, but we kill a lot of things every day, including human beings, for a multitude of reasons. We put our pets down, we bomb foreign cities, we put criminals to death, we kill people when we drink and drive, and we kill others when we don't do enough to help them. So why are fetuses so special? Let's call it like it is: human life is cheap. And the jury is out on whether a fetus is even human life. If it's human life at conception then I don't see why sperm isn't considered life. Sure, sperm can't become life on its own, but it's impossible without it. We should start arresting people for masturbating.

If abortions are made illegal, then someone needs to come up with a penalty for mothers who have them. You can't only punish a doctor who is willing to perform them. Should we treat mothers like first-degree murderers? Should we charge them with manslaughter? Or should there just be a fine? And I hope everyone is prepared to have more women dying in back-alley abortion clinics, because making abortions illegal isn't going to stop them. It's illegal to shoot a guy in the face, but I'm under the impression that still happens a lot.

I should delete this post and just write a funny one about actually being pro-abortion. It's not like I'm giving you any new information here.