For all those up in arms about the possible overturn of Roe v. Wade, do you understand that abortion will still be legal? The change will simply put abortion restrictions back at the state level. Several liberal states have already pledged to become havens for late term abortion, so even that extreme procedure will still be available.
For everyone who wants the Senate to end the filibuster and/or the Supreme Court to be packed with additional members to "restore balance," do you understand the permanence of those moves -- and what will happen when Republicans control the Presidency and both houses of Congress again? Are you willing to give up your minority protections when you're the minority? Do you want the Court packed over and over whenever the reins of government go to the other side?
Even more than the roaring economy he gave us before COVID arrived from China, Donald Trump's greatest accomplishments were keeping Hillary out of the White House, getting three conservative justices onto the Supreme Court, and giving lifetime appointments to hundreds of conservative federal judges.
Morgan Smith
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Morgan Smith,
On things that pertain to basic human rights, it is not only a case of kicking the can down the road, but it is also unconscionable to leave it up to the individual states to rule one way or the other. That is the libertarian approach. It is a cop-out.
Regarding abortion and a woman’s right to choose, it is especially problematic and unjust, because a woman might be several states distant from the nearest abortion clinic. If Roe v Wade is overturned, it is almost set in stone that every Southern state will make getting an abortion illegal. A woman living in, say, lower Mississippi or Alabama or Florida would have to travel hundreds of miles, maybe even a thousand miles or more, to an abortion clinic, having to contend with not only the high cost of gasoline for the trip, but overnight lodging. It would cost her a small fortune, in addition to the cost of the abortion itself. The vast majority of women seeking abortions tend to be from the lowest economic sector and would be faced with a nearly impossible situation. Of course, the “pro-lifers” don’t care about those women anyway and are perfectly content for them to have to endure any form and degree of hardship.
If it weren’t for the evangelical Christians having infiltrated our political system, completely obliterating the line between church and state, we wouldn’t even be having this debate. But we are letting a minority of Old Testament fundamentalists and their hand-picked Supreme Court justices foist their repressive Biblical laws on a nation that has always been considered to be constitutionally secular.
Rick Armstrong
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Rick,
God formed every human being, including you.
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." Psalm 139:13-16
Your list of tribulations for a mother wishing to kill the life in her are so sad.
Logistics.
Gas prices.
Motel.
Michael Burns
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Mr. Armstrong,
A woman does not have the right to “choose” to kill her child in the same way that I do not have the “choice” to murder anyone.
In an age which seems obsessed with “the science”, let’s remember that “the science” proves that life starts at conception. Abortion violently ends the life of a whole, seperate and unique human being that is entitled to basic human rights. You are correct when you say that in things which “pertain to basic human rights, one should not kick the can down the road”. This is precisely why our pro-life legislature in Tennessee has taken bold action to give basic human rights to every human in our state. The right to life.
When it comes to the allegedly “libertarian” approach, remember that before Roe v. Wade, the states were allowed to decide for themselves. In that time, we had a much more sane view of human rights and thus, the unborn were protected. But, as usual, the jackbooted federal government interfered with that principle and imposed an arbitrary and egregiously unconstitutional mandate to the states, and suddenly, the most dangerous place in America is the womb.
This is not about a “choice” or “bodily autonomy”, this is about human life, and your opposition or support for the barbaric practice of abortion is directly in proportion to your view of human life, whether it be high (pro-life) or low (pro- “choice”)
I hope my comments have brought some clarity to the conversation.
William Reynolds
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Mr. Burns,
I find it interesting that you used Psalm 139 as an example. Thank you for that. I'm compelled to recount something that happened to me back in the summer of 1995. I had a driving job at the time and often found myself listening to the radio and paying attention to license plates and signs, etc.
One afternoon I was driving on Lee Highway, and for some reason the words came to my mind something like this: "God, you know everything about me, even before it happens. There's nothing you don't know already." I really don't know why I had that thought. Then, maybe 30 minutes or an hour later, I was on highway 58. I remember it well. It was a rainy day. I looked at a car in the lane to the left of me and a bit in front of me, and the license plate said "Psalm 139."
I was no atheist (maybe sometimes slightly agnostic), but I wasn't a regular Bible reader either. I had been brought up in church, but I wasn't a regular attendee at the time. I made it a point to remember what the license plate said so that I could look it up. A few hours later, I got home, and the first thing I did was grab a Bible and read that passage. I was absolutely flabbergasted at the fact that it basically said exactly what I was thinking that day.
One of my main takeaways from that was that abortion is absolutely wrong. I figured that if God was overseeing my development in the womb I was indeed a real human being at the time, from the very beginning. No, I was not pregnant and never have been and certainly have never had an abortion, but that was just one of the main interpretations that came to my mind that day. I'm not trying to preach to anyone, but I would like for someone to be able to explain to me how that happened in the absence of a higher power. That would be quite a strong coincidence, if a coincidence at all.
Leo Kendall