The Obama Project@WindonWater.net

Here’s an excerpt of Steve Waldman’s blog post:

…consider this statistical couplet. According to a 2007 survey commissioned by a progressive think tank called Third Way, 69 percent of Americans believe abortion is the “taking of a human life,” but 72 percent believe it should be legal.

Let that soak in. Most people think abortion is taking a human life and yet favor the procedure being legal. How grotesque! Are we Americans utterly immoral?

Actually, what the data proclaim is something that politicians and activists can’t: Most Americans believe there are gradations of life. Some living things are more alive than others, and so the later in the pregnancy it gets, the more uncomfortable people become with the idea of ending it. But in reality they believe both that a life stirs very early on and that a one-week-old embryo is more “killable” than a nine-month-old fetus. For them, determining whether “life” begins at conception really doesn’t determine anything.

Right. I said something similar back in January:

Disclaimer: I’m choosing the words “anti-abortion” as opposed to the false dichotomy of pro-life and pro-choice. Who isn’t pro-life? Who is pro-abortion? And – is it a honest-to-God fact that every instance of abortion is really a choice? I think reasonable minds can come to a different place on this issue – especially if we stop talking about it in ways that define us as against each other. Most of us don’t think animals have the same rights as humans – but we also agree that we don’t have a right to be cruel to animals. that’s not a choice we get to exercise. There’s a reasonable place where we all can meet – I’d like to see us get there.

Given that Roe v Wade already makes the trimester distinction, it seems reasonable that that’s a line we can pursue, safely, without jeopardizing the sanctity of established law.

QT

1. Some women do not consider abortion a “choice.” They consider it a consequence of a variety of circumstances Unlike Ms. Palin, I think rape and incest should be counted in to those circumstances, but in general, I think the circumstances should be health specific and not lifestyle specific. But the discussion of the issue as a “choice” largely obscures the discourse, and makes it hard to talk about the nuances involved.

2. One’s medical history is supposed to be private

3. The privacy of minors is always protected.

Hence – the idea that privacy and “choice” are part and parcel is quite a bit off. That’s just the framing so we can have a political argument.

Finally – I think it’s sad and distasteful for anyone to be taking issue with Obama”s sensitivity to the needs of a young girl, whose life is already largely altered, permanently, by her circumstances. The larger women’s issues can be discussed without dragging Bristol into it – and everyone knows it. Or do the privacy and choice advocates exalt their rights over the rights of this young girl?

I continue to support, wholeheartedly, the wonderful decency that is the Obama/Biden ticket. And I continue to be grateful not to belong to any political party.
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