Which do you want first ? How about I toss a coin? Anti-abortion wins, it gets to go first.
PRO-LIFE TIRADE
Growing up in a family of too many kids that no one had time, money, or maturity to care for properly, I was well past forty before nieces and nephews taught me the joy, fun and happiness that adults and children can give to one another. As one of those unable to have children, the idea that others consider something that I hold so dear, and would be overjoyed to take off their hands, as simple body waste to dispose of as they please, crushes me like a rock every time I think about it. Well, they say it is their bodies and hence no one's business but theirs. Bullbleep! Nearly everyone of those people would agree that all Germans at some level of consciousness must accept some responsibility for what Hitler ordered done to the Jews. There is no such thing as no strings attached anything. If one is to be a taxpaying, cooperative member of a society, he is answerable for the activities of that society. Like the General who spouts that "War is Hell", but continues to wallow in the profits and glories of war until his own son or daughter is maimed, mangled or killed in one, for years before discovering pleasure of my siblings' offspring, and even thereafter, abortion still occupied little of my thoughts until I became personally involved with consoling a friend who'd just had an abortion. I too was upset because she was a close friend of mine who was very upset, and because I would loved to have raised her child and I think she knew it. When I exclaimed "why didn't you give it to us?", her exact response was, "Everybody knows that it is very traumatic to give a child away, nobody ever said anything about how horrible it feels afterward to have one aborted". So somebody tell me, how come people and media events are full of what it feels like to give up a child for adoption and nobody ever talks about the emotional shock of having a baby pulled from one's body and killed ? All these doctors discuss in great detail the possible physical side effects of an abortion, and, oh, by the way, a mild depression may follow. Mild depression my bleep! How about a big time depression with permanent emotional scars, and, oh yeah, some of your friends may suffer the same. All these talk shows are forever lining up a bunch of women who have given a child away and discussing the emotional strain it caused them. When are you going to line up a bunch of women and discuss with them how their very first abortion felt ? I say first because, as I understand it, they get progressively easier after the first one. But then that's what murderers always say, isn't it? The first one's always the hardest.
PRO-CHOICE TIRADE
That bunch of anti-abortionists just really makes me sick. I've never seen such a bunch of self-serving, self-centered, and just plain selfish hypocrites in my life. They run around screaming about legal rights of the unborn, the rights to life of the unborn, about the crime against mankind, (how much worse is it than the crime against mankind done by unwanted children?), but loudest and longest about the terrible sin against God committed by those giving as well as those receiving abortions. I've never heard a single one of them demand that mothers considering abortion be told about just how damaging an abortion can be to them mentally and emotionally as well as physically. I've never heard of them devoting an ounce of energy to alleviating the circumstances that corner women in the situations that lead them to consider abortions in the first place. They positively shrink in horror at the idea of telling little girls of nine or ten that the devil is going to be casting temptations of the flesh before them the most just when they are least able to resist temptation and are most likely to conceive a child, (all desires for sex outside marriage come from the Devil, doesn't it ?), and that furthermore, he's going to do it for three to six days every twenty eight days or so, regular as clockwork, for about thirty five to forty years. I never ever heard one of them volunteer to take a bunch of those unwanted children to raise as their own, or offer to provide financial support enough to sustain proper growth and development of such children for 20 years or so, much less organize the vast army needed to provide the mental, physical and financial nurturing required by each and every one of these children for 20 years. All of their energy is expended in a direction of hatred and vindictiveness toward the evil women that have decided to have an abortion and those double evil doctors and nurses that agree to help them do it. The fact is they don't give a rip about these women or their kids or the society in which we live. The only reason they are doing this stuff is to gain favor in the eyes of God and buy themselves a ticket to Heaven or simply because they are control freaks.
Well, allow me to point out a few principles embedded in that Bible you're busy banging on peoples' heads. God said vengeance is mine, not yours, and when you try to get even with these people for him you are violating some of his rules that he says are just as important as the one you are trying to prevent or avenge. Namely, thou shalt love one another as thyself, and judge not, that ye not be judged, and a few others I'm sure. Yeah, you gotta have principles and stand by them, and yeah, the Old Testament is about doing in those that disobey God. But some of us also believe in a New Testament and it is all about Jesus, and He is all about love, kindness, consideration, and thoughts as well as deeds that are conducive to the health, happiness and well being of oneself, one's friends, and even one's enemies, both here and in the hereafter. What you are doing is conducive to hatred, discord, discomfort and discontent, and ain't going to buy you a ticket into heaven.
One more thing, about depriving those poor helpless babies of the glorious right to life. Well, that certainly is pretty horrible all right. But life for those children whose mothers contemplate abortion and don't get one can be pretty horrible too. Some horribles are worse than others. Until you have been one of those children, and grown up shoulder to shoulder with hundreds just like yourself, usually in dismal, dirty, dismaying conditions that, by their very nature doom one, not only to live that way for life, but to project it upon his or her offspring perpetually, don't be so hasty to judge that death before life is the greater horribleness. For one thing, I should think death before birth should at least guarantee one a free ticket to heaven shouldn't it?. Whether you holier-than-thou's like to believe it or not, growing up through a multitude of child abuses, substance abuses and a deficit of proper mental stimulation definitely leaves one on the longest road to Heaven. For another thing, you never have to spend most of your life, (if not all of it), feeling like a very unpleasant burden on the whole world and cursing yourself almost daily for not having the simple courage of self disposal.
Don't feel sorry for all the kids growing up in slums the world over, and stop feeling so stupidly self righteous. Kids in slums these days don't have a monopoly on suicide, drug addiction, dysfunctionality, disassociation and (have I used enough of the correct buzzwords to obtain a respectable ear?) blah, blah, blah. Open your eyes and look around and ask, what's wrong with this picture ? What can I do to help fix it ? I don't believe we can ever police or legislate people into not having abortions, not using drugs, not growing up poor, mean, evil, or into controlling pollution, people or otherwise. But we can organize an army of warriors dedicated to fight ignorance and greed, in kind, considerate, patient, constructive ways, to teaching our children how to raise their children virtually immune to these grievances. And the best part is, unlike all other wars our great leaders have promised us would give us fulfillment, satisfaction, glory, make us prosper economically and spiritually, and just be plain old FUN, this one really will !
So where does this leave me on the issue of abortion. Absolutely no where ! I will pass, virtually without inspection, whatever legislation your Congress places before me on the subject. I intend to put all my energy toward organizing and activating the people of this entire nation, if not the world, into activities that will cause the abortion problem to dissipate into thin air for lack of participants. I'm sorry folks, but it is counter to every fiber in my being to dwell on, much less engage in, negative thoughts or counter-productive activities, and you remind me I said that if I ever behave as if I forgot it.