Pro Choice or Pro Abortion?
In Italy last month (sorry this news is a wee bit old) came up with a policy to give financial support to women in hard up circumstances. Something the left should support, right? The scheme was in fact put forward by the Italian left.
Yet British liberals seem blinded, they often have the same polarised and skewed view of the Americans. The Guardian's report on the 2nd of December portrayed the ruling ( which would give women in straitened economic circumstances between £170 and 350 euros for up to six months before giving birth) as being a proposal to appease the pro life relgious lobby. Upsetting, as save for this bias the Graun remains my favourite broadsheet.
Is it not about quality of life? What kind of a choice is it to have an abortion because one cannot afford a child? Nobody should be forced by poverty into making such a decision, else it is no real 'choice'.
The pro choice 'left' reacted in a similiar way to Cardinal Winning's offer in Scotland nearly a decade ago as to pay women not to have abortions. Why shouldn't women accept an offer of financial assistance when pregnant in averse circumstances, regardless of the source? Bear in mind that Winning was not asking them to convert to Catholicism.
In Bournemouth there exists a shelter for teenagers evicted by their fathers for refusing to abort. A 'pro choice' male aqquaintance of mine condemned these centres as being places that 'entrap vulnerable young women to continue with unwanted pregnancies'. Unwanted by the girl's fathers , this is, not by the girls themselves. How pro woman.
I hope personal anecdotes are ok. A close friend of mine who I love dearly also was ready to feel negative about the proposals in Italy. Upsetting to see that he would rather see poor women be pressured into giving up their babies, going through a painful and unpleasant procedure and living with it for the rest of their lives, rather than receiving help and support so that they can welcome their children into the world with love. But it seems the true interests of these women (and their unborn children) can be sacrificed in the name of a pseudo 'choice'. Pro choice is often neither pro choice nor pro woman. It sometimes sacrifices the interests of both women and true freedom due to it's vested interest in the abortion industry, and well meaning individuals can be all too ready to swallow the rhetoric.
Naomi Wolf, in her book 'Misconceptions' reported a pro choice lawyer opposing the granting of free drug treatment for pregnant women on crack cocaine, in order that the foetuses (by now seven months old, beyond the British time limit for abortion but not the American) would not breathee in the smoke. The man dismissed this as being a 'violation of the women's rights', as it was putting the interests of the foetuses before the women. So it is ok for unborn children to breath in crack smoke while at seven months gestation, bearing in mind these children were not destined for abortion. And what is wrong with providing drug treatment. Is it an inherent 'right to choose' now to be self destructive with one's own self, along with your children. Again, how pro woman.
It seems some people in Britain are not immune from such thinking themselves, as my examples showed.
Yet British liberals seem blinded, they often have the same polarised and skewed view of the Americans. The Guardian's report on the 2nd of December portrayed the ruling ( which would give women in straitened economic circumstances between £170 and 350 euros for up to six months before giving birth) as being a proposal to appease the pro life relgious lobby. Upsetting, as save for this bias the Graun remains my favourite broadsheet.
Is it not about quality of life? What kind of a choice is it to have an abortion because one cannot afford a child? Nobody should be forced by poverty into making such a decision, else it is no real 'choice'.
The pro choice 'left' reacted in a similiar way to Cardinal Winning's offer in Scotland nearly a decade ago as to pay women not to have abortions. Why shouldn't women accept an offer of financial assistance when pregnant in averse circumstances, regardless of the source? Bear in mind that Winning was not asking them to convert to Catholicism.
In Bournemouth there exists a shelter for teenagers evicted by their fathers for refusing to abort. A 'pro choice' male aqquaintance of mine condemned these centres as being places that 'entrap vulnerable young women to continue with unwanted pregnancies'. Unwanted by the girl's fathers , this is, not by the girls themselves. How pro woman.
I hope personal anecdotes are ok. A close friend of mine who I love dearly also was ready to feel negative about the proposals in Italy. Upsetting to see that he would rather see poor women be pressured into giving up their babies, going through a painful and unpleasant procedure and living with it for the rest of their lives, rather than receiving help and support so that they can welcome their children into the world with love. But it seems the true interests of these women (and their unborn children) can be sacrificed in the name of a pseudo 'choice'. Pro choice is often neither pro choice nor pro woman. It sometimes sacrifices the interests of both women and true freedom due to it's vested interest in the abortion industry, and well meaning individuals can be all too ready to swallow the rhetoric.
Naomi Wolf, in her book 'Misconceptions' reported a pro choice lawyer opposing the granting of free drug treatment for pregnant women on crack cocaine, in order that the foetuses (by now seven months old, beyond the British time limit for abortion but not the American) would not breathee in the smoke. The man dismissed this as being a 'violation of the women's rights', as it was putting the interests of the foetuses before the women. So it is ok for unborn children to breath in crack smoke while at seven months gestation, bearing in mind these children were not destined for abortion. And what is wrong with providing drug treatment. Is it an inherent 'right to choose' now to be self destructive with one's own self, along with your children. Again, how pro woman.
It seems some people in Britain are not immune from such thinking themselves, as my examples showed.
posted by Liz at 7:55 AM
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