Let Me Start with a Hot Take
This is going to be the most controversial part of this controversial article: abortion is quite literally the least important major political issue to me. I can honestly say that I don’t care one way or the other. It doesn’t affect me at all. First, I’m a man and I can’t even have an abortion anyway (I can’t believe I have to say this, but to those out there who might say otherwise, no, men cannot get pregnant). Second, I’m engaged, and my fiancée and I both fully intend on having children down the road, so there are no plans to ever have an abortion.
Given this, I think any rational person can understand that I care far more about the economy, constitutional rights, conservationism, what I’m going to have for breakfast in the morning, what color socks I wear, whether to have my photos printed in 4x6 or 5x7, or literally anything else besides this hot topic issue. I truly mean it when I say I couldn’t care less about this topic. It has nothing to do with my life.
So, What Are My Opinions on Abortion?
Here are my personal thoughts on abortion in convenient bullet point form:
The choice of having an abortion carries moral weight and isn’t just an action like choosing what lunch to have or picking a t-shirt from Target to buy.
I believe that performing an abortion amounts to killing an unborn child.
I don’t take seriously the dehumanizing “clump of cells” moniker prescribed to these unborn children with separate DNA and heartbeats. There is a reason why murdering a pregnant woman is a double homicide.
With all that said, I still don’t believe in the type of banning that has swept the country since the overturn of Roe v. Wade with SCOTUS’ Dobbs decision. I’ll get more into detail on that later, but first I wanted to bring up a very poignant interview I saw recently.
The GOP is Paying the Price for Their Abortion Strategy
In this interview with South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace (R), the congresswoman made clear her issues with the recent wave of pro-life legislation sweeping the red states from Florida to Idaho. And while I have my own issues with her policy-wise, she seems to be the only Republican with any semblance of strategy. Here’s just some of what she said regarding pro-life policies:
"We need to find a middle ground on this issue, and I have a great pro-life voting record, but some of the stances we take and especially when it comes to rape and incest, protecting the life of the mother, it's so extreme that middle, independent voters, right of center, left of center, they cannot support us."
"We have not learned our lesson from the midterm election. We went mildly pro-choice to being a vast majority of voters being pro-choice after Roe v. Wade. It changed the entire electoral environment in ‘22."
“Last year in the midterm elections, I saw us lose seats we should have won. It feels like we’re burying our heads in the sand.”
Representative Mace is right. The huge rightward push in many states has caused political upheaval and has alienated a lot of people from the GOP. This can be seen in the 2022 midterm elections. Given the unpopularity of Joe Biden and the relatively favorable map for Republicans, this should have been an easy pickup of both the House and the Senate. Instead, the GOP barely won the House (and even then, the meager winnings could be attributed largely to the success of the DeSantis and Zeldin campaign coattails in Florida and New York, respectively) and failed to flip the Senate. Now of course, the poor midterm showing had more causes than just the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but it was certainly a significant contributing factor.
But that’s not all, polling is suggesting that the momentum is against the pro-life movement. This could have a serious impact on Republican chances of retaining the House, flipping the Senate and securing the presidency come 2024. To be fully transparent with you, I’m not a Republican. I’m a registered Independent who leans center-right, but even I am willing to tell those in the GOP that this is a losing strategy. It is alienating moderates and even some on the right who don’t view abortion the same way that Christian fundamentalists do, like myself.
The Democrats Aren’t Much Better
Don’t get me wrong, as much as I’m bashing on the Republicans for caving to the further right elements of their party, the Democrats are doing the same in reverse. Not to mention that they had 50 years to actually codify abortion rights into law but did nothing. No, they were content with the Supreme Court violating the separation of powers and legislating from the bench in a move that even the Notorious RBG thought was a judicial overstep. Just as complete abortion bans aren’t widely popular, neither is the far-left idea of abortion up until birth. This, combined with some of the disturbing rhetoric surrounding pro-choice protestors, also turns normal people off and often makes those who push extremely hard for these things seem emotionally stunted, disturbed or even evil.
The terminally online, who seem to comprise the bulk of both the far-left and the far-right, are woefully out of touch with the average American and do not seem to realize just how mentally unhinged and deeply disturbed they appear to folks like you or me. Believing in the 90’s era Clinton mantra of “Safe, Legal and Rare” in regard to abortion is one thing, but so-called activist groups like “Shout Your Abortion” come across as really creepy and almost sadistic to normal people.
To most people, having an abortion is something that should be done as a last resort, and there have been countless studies showing the psychological damage done to women who have undergone the procedure. Having an abortion is a difficult and personal moral decision that should be talked about with seriousness and solemnity, not something to proudly go out on the street and proclaim to the world. In my opinion, discussions about abortion should be similar to discussions about having to kill someone in self-defense: not something you should dream about doing and celebrating when it happens, but something you personally need to come to terms with as something you had to do.
Here are a few examples of how insane some of these protesters can look. The high school-aged girls above are holding signs saying they won’t apologize for having an abortion, are dressed like mutilated and gagged rape victims and have baby dolls of the presumed children they were “forced” to birth. These gals look just as wacky to a regular person as the men’s rights “give us back our foreskin” types. They’re even dressed the same.
There’s also this video (screenshots above) of an insane woman who is performing this, um… activism? in front of a New York City church. Who is this supposed to convince? I honest-to-God think this woman needs serious help. There are also people who say, “little kids belong at abortion rallies.” Politicizing little children is predatory and hiding behind them to excuse your political persuasions is cowardly and sleazy. Then of course, there are politicians like former Virginia Governor Ralph “Blackface” Northam who pushed for post-birth abortions where even after a baby is born, the doctor and parents could decide whether or not it has the privilege of being allowed to live.
My left-wing friends and readers, people and ideas like this make you look like just as much of a nutter as the far-rightists who want to ban all abortion without exception and impose Christian theocracy on everyone else. These insane, detached-from-the-majority opinions on both sides are destructive to discourse, human life and utterly unhelpful.
The Compromise We Need Going Forward
Now that we’re more polarized than ever and all these radical laws from both sides are further dividing the country, how do we solve this? One word, my friend: compromise. This country was built on compromise, and if we’re going to live together, we ideally need to learn how to get along, or at the very least tolerate each other’s existence. I know, I’m asking for a lot.
One of the arguments I always hear when defending abortion access is that women who are pregnant as a result of rape or incest should not be forced to carry a baby to term. This is a reasonable argument, although an equally valid argument about not determining a person’s worth as a human being based solely on the circumstances of their birth also exists to counter this. However, we are here to make compromise, so this is a good place to start. We can also add the endangerment of the health or life of the mother here as well. The number of abortions performed due to rape and incest is less than 2% of the total number performed, however. So, what do we do about the other 98%?
The reason for most abortions is obvious, women are just using it as another form of birth control. Perhaps we should allow and encourage other methods of birth control, such as condoms, birth control pills, Plan B, guys learning how to pull out for God’s sake, etc. I know this will make me sound like some lame prude, but it is scientifically proven without a doubt that abstinence is a 100% guaranteed way to prevent any pregnancy. The conversation about the devaluation of sex and its uncoupling from love and connection is for another time, but it does help explain how abstinence became such a controversial choice to push. Regardless, this could be another point of compromise, allowing and encouraging these other forms of birth control while limiting abortion.
Many progressives like to point to Europe as an example for all manner of social and political systems, but they never mention that third trimester abortions are illegal in all of Europe, and most countries ban abortion after the first trimester, making American blue states the outliers. This seems like a reasonable model to be in line with the rest of the Western world and a fair compromise for this country. Instead of total bans or total allowance, why not have it be restricted to the first trimester/early-second trimester (3-4 months)? That gives enough time for someone to realize they’re pregnant and make a decision, but also limits the most disturbing and horrific abortions that are performed later in a pregnancy. This also lines up with the views of 80% of Americans who are opposed to late second and third trimester abortions already.
There, look at what we’ve done today. We made a compromise, and like any good compromise, no one is fully happy, but everyone feels like they got something they really wanted out of the deal. Far-leftists and far-rightists, you are both wrong in different ways. Most people don’t think like either of you. Most people are much closer to the center, and I think it’s high time we listened to them and their voices of reason rather than continuing to let the fanatics on the political edge dictate our policy. Let’s look at our five-point compromise:
Abortions will be allowed up to 3-4 months after the pregnancy has begun.
Abortions will be allowed at any time in the case of rape, incest, if the unborn child will suffer a short life for a few days or even hours after birth, or if the health/life of the mother is endangered.
Abortion will otherwise be completely banned from the mid-second trimester to the third trimester.
Adequate resources will be put into other forms of birth control such as condoms, birth control pills, Plan B and abstinence. These methods will be both allowed and prioritized as better alternatives to abortion.
Safe, Legal and Rare will be our mantra as we keep the procedure as professional and safe as possible while also doing everything we can to ensure that it is not a frequent occurrence, as this procedure carries serious moral weight. However, those who do undergo the procedure during the legal timeframe/under the exceptional circumstances should not be judged or treated negatively.
Well, I hope you all enjoyed this piece because I am never writing about this topic again. I’ve said my piece, and I have nothing else to say about this topic that is honestly not all that important to me, but very important to others. If my specific compromise didn’t work for you, then I hope you at least are able to come to the understanding that the only sustainable future is one of compromise, not extremism. Perhaps we could all try to better understand the viewpoints of others? But what do I know? I’m just some man on the internet.