Recently, OKgrannie said this...
Nearly 100% of those who speak of "unborn children" have NO compassion for women with unwanted pregnancies.
My question is to people who agree with this statement....
What could a person "who speaks of unborn children" do that would make you rethink your belief that the above is a true statement? What actions constitute a "compassion for women with unwanted pregnancies"?
Mellie, I'm going to respond to your original post. I want you to know that I do so without trying to be insulting to you or use
ad hominem attacks against you. I say this because I know how charged this topic can be and I want to answer your question honestly according to my observations.
No, I don't think that 100% of those who speak of "unborn children" have NO compassion for women with unwanted pregnancies. I think many who are pro-life have compassion for women with unwanted pregnancies, so that statement is categorically false.
However, I think that for many who are pro-life, especially conservatives, their priorities are misplaced when it comes to the issue of abortion. This is because abortion isn't an independent issue. Rather, I see abortion as a sub-issue of Reproductive Rights.
I think men and women both have Natural Rights over control of their body with regards to reproduction. And I don't think the state, one way or the other, should have the ability to interfere with a man's or woman's reproductive rights, except to help a man or a woman exercise more control and choice over their reproductive rights.
When it comes to the exercise of reproductive rights, there are two groups that usually suffer the most: 1) the poor, and 2) teenagers.
The poor suffer because they may not be able to pay for proper birth control methods. Medicaid does, in some cases, cover birth control, but that's only if the woman meets the criteria for it. If a woman doesn't, then she still may not be able to afford birth control in order to prevent pregnancies.
Teenagers suffer because there's a HUGE stigma against teen pregnancy (and teen sex in general) despite the biological fact that is during the teenage years that humans not only start to because sexually active, but also that it is an age when they are able to reproduce, and for some people the most virile time for them to do so.
Now, pro-lifers tend to be conservatives, and conservatives tend to not support the reproductive rights of the poor and teenagers, and it is those groups whose reproductive rights require the most support.
Conservatives tend not to support the reproductive rights of the poor by trying to limit and/or prohibit government health insurance that provides birth control to the poor. For many conservatives, this is goes against their fiscal beliefs that government health insurance in general is bad thing. However, government insurance may be the only way that the poor can get coverage for themselves. Religious conservatives, especially Catholics, are against birth control in general because of their religious beliefs.
Conservatives tend not to support the reproductive rights of teenagers because, well, they are teenagers and the United States tends to have pretty Puritan opinions when it comes to sex and sexuality. Social conservatives tend to believe that sex education may promote sexual activity among teenagers, and so may resist sex education and birth control education among teenagers. There's also the awkwardness of teenage girls approaching their parents about getting birth control, and leaves the possibility that 1) the teenage girl won't approach them because they're uncomfortable talking about sex or birth control with their parents or 2) the parents will refuse to put their teenage girl on birth control because they think it may promote her promiscuity. Because teenagers are group in with the poor since they tend not to have high paying jobs, they can't afford to pay for birth control themselves. And then there are the religious conservatives who not only believe that birth control is wrong, they believe that teen sex outside of wedlock is wrong as well, and so try to prohibit them exercising their reproductive rights.
So one of the issues that I, personally, have with pro-lifers, especially conservative ones, is that in addition to being against abortion many are also against reproductive rights and the promotion and exercising of those rights.
I hope that this shows how conservatives, in general (but not specifically you - I don't know what your personal stances on these issues are) tend not to support women with unwanted pregnancies.
It's because conservatives, in general, don't seem to support the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, especially with regards to the groups mostly to get unwanted pregnancies, the poor and teenagers, and are also the groups most likely to be adversely affected by unwanted pregnancies. The poor simply cannot afford to give birth and raise a child, and that goes the same for teenagers but they also have the added burden of not being fully educated, experienced, or emotionally developed to give birth and raise a child. Despite this, conservatives tend to not want to take the steps to promote prevention of unwanted pregnancies, especially among these groups.
There are also other reasons, for example conservatives not wanting to pay taxes that would pay for the public education and the government health insurance and the food stamp programs for all the children who would have to rely on those programs born among the poor and teenagers; however my major criticism against pro-life conservatives are those who have an unwillingness to promote birth control programs that would prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place.