raising godzillas

Practical prolife

I have always, always been prolife, but I think that since adolescence I have been so in a practical way. I'll tell you what I mean by that, but first a little background.
Although I am a religious person I am not prolife for religious reasons. I am prolife because my mother was a poor, mentally ill woman with an abusive husband when she got pregnant with me. Then she started hemorrhaging, and the doctors told her to have a D&C (this was before Roe v Wade). They told her her child, if brought to term, would be so disabled she would wish she hadn't. Don't I sound like an ad for why woman should get abortions? I am so grateful my mother didn't.
I also think the Bible is a poor reason for being prolife. Not only should religion NOT dictate public policy, but abortion is never actually prohibited in the Bible. All you get if you rely on the Bible is that if a man causes another man's wife to miscarry after the age of quickening, he owes the HUSBAND a fine.
So, what I mean by being practical in my prolife beliefs. Many prolifers I observe are coming from a conservative viewpoint that proscribes two things- gay sex and premarital sex. As for the first- those gay people aren't going to be getting each other knocked up and getting abortions, right. That's about 10% of the population out of the equation so leave them alone. As to the second, I think it be great if my kids all waited until they had a degree, a spouse and a full time job to have sex. That's a value I have and will teach them. But I have known so many people in my life who came from the "abstinence only" parents who had abortions to keep their parents from finding out they'd had sex.(one was a Chinese co-worker of mine who specifically had an abortion so her father would not find out she's had sex with a white boy) I vowed to be open enough with my kids that I would hopefully take that issue off the table.I want them to know that while I would prefer them to not  have sex, if they are going to I want them to use contraception and practice safe sex, and I will help them in that regard. Sure, it breaks form the "Christian Parent party line", but I want to be realistic. A life may depend on it.

posted by gojirama @ 1:56 PM