Abortion Opponents Should Stop Name-Calling, Tackle the Real Issue, Our Rights

Because of her pro-choice stance, Liz is attacked and cursed by one reader, "Mommy", who says she hopes Liz can never have children. For their sake, Mommy, I hope you aren't. Unfortunately, I fear you are the type of close-minded, bigot who instills in your children the idea that sex is dirty, nasty and for procreation only.

Your vicious attack on Liz without even knowing her is exactly what my mother taught me to never tolerate. Maybe I just shouldn't think of you as polite company.

For the record, my mother is pro-life. She was an unwed mother in the 1960s when even her doctor was quietly recommending another "solution" or that she buy a cheap wedding ring and claim her husband was killed in Vietnam. And, as much as I admired her for her choices, I also know how I suffered for them.

There was never a day growing up that I was not aware of the "sacrifices" she made to raise me alone and what a bastard my father was and a hundred other psychological scars. Maybe, that's why I am pro-choice. Or maybe it's because my roommate in college was raped and got pregnant and didn't want to raise that child, ruin her career, or deal with the pain of a "happy event" related to her trauma.

Maybe, it's because I value all life and think that the man and woman that created that fetus have the right to determine their own destiny. For all those Christians out there who oppose abortion, fine, oppose it for yourselves. But God gave me free will and it is ridiculous for the government and the courts to try to take away that free will.

Maybe it's because last spring, I helped a girl just turning 18 talk with her mother and decide what to do with the fetus growing in her womb. Before you hit your downgrade button and decide I'm a horrible writer and mother because I value all life, know that my first advice was that she consider adoption.

Far too many people who desperately want children are unable to have them and would love to have a newborn infant so adoption is always preferable to abortion. But the young lady lives in a small town and he people are mean and hurtful and accuse birth mothers of the same things they accuse those who choose abortion of: being too selfish, not caring about their child, and they throw in abandoning the child for good measure.

I offered to take her to a home for unwed mothers where she could go through the pregnancy with support and love instead of the holier-than-thou attitudes of so many people. I lost the argument, but I still support the young woman's decision. She is far too immature to be a parent, but was at least mature enough to realize it.

As callous as it may sound, a woman who choose abortion can at least grieve for the loss of her innocence and the life that had begun inside her. A mother who chooses adoption spends the remainder of her life wondering about the child, crying through birthdays and wishing she knew if her child was happy and healthy.

The rabid need of some people to be right about their position and to denigrate anyone who disagrees is absolutely disgusting. Liz simply argued that abortion, like most health and sex decisions, should be a personal choice, not something smeared across the pages of the newspaper. It should not be a political issue or a legal issue. It is personal.

And, whether people like it or not, the reality is Roe Vs. Wade did not create abortion in this country. In the relatively small population of Southern Illinois in the 1960s and 1970s, doctors often recommended abortion to their unwed patients, referring them to colleagues in other areas where the procedure was legal.

If people really want to eliminate or reduce the number of abortions taking place, they need to stop the petty name-calling and lobby for real changes that can and will make a difference. For example, many leading insurance plans have no coverage for birth control. When my husband worked for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, his policy was arguably one of the best out there. It covered abortion, but not the cost of any form of birth control short of sterilization.

State welfare programs need to be altered to assist poor women with the cost of birth control and stop advising young women to get pregnant. I personally know three young women with major health concerns whose employers did not cover medical insurance. When they sough out assistance for their health coverage, each one of them was told they could qualify for health coverage for their unrelated health problems if they got pregnant. So we as a society tell people that we don't want another generation of welfare children, and then promote their birth. How stupid is that!

Unfortunately, until society can have a civilized discussion about birth control without it degenerating into name-calling and a nasty abortion debate, abortion will be in high demand. If you want to change it, quit cursing people who support it and work at making it the most horrific of the options. Make abortion the choice of last resort instead of the easiest option around.