In addition to last week’s editorial on Indiana’s new abortion law and the letter to the editor from Rev. Ray Salemink in response, I’d like to contribute my final argument regarding abortion and the pro-life lobby.
The editorial “Indiana abortion law harms education” discussed the repercussions of House enrolled act 1337, which would prevent IU from being able to pursue stem cell research.
According to the Gallup poll referenced in both last Monday’s editorial and the letter by Rev. Salemink, 46 percent of the nation considers themselves pro-life.
According to that same poll, only 19 percent of the nation believes abortion should be illegal in all cases. This means nearly 60 percent of pro-lifers believe abortion is acceptable in at least some cases, most commonly cases of rape and incest.
To me, it seems this section of pro-life supporters actually support pro-choice.
In cases of rape, though, the same Gallup poll shows the majority of pro-life supporters would permit the victim of rape or incest to have an abortion if she became impregnated by her rapist.
So if fetuses and people had equal protection under the law and fetuses that were the product of rape or incest are allowed to be murdered, then it follows that any living, breathing person who was the product of rape or incest wouldn’t be protected against murder.
Equal protection works both ways.
Of course, no one actually believes people should be able to be murdered because they were the product of rape or incest.
This destroys the idea that, for 60 percent, a fetus is exactly equal to the life of a person.
They’ve chosen what situations make it acceptable for a woman to have an abortion.
This picking and choosing makes the logic behind their set of beliefs and political stance completely inconsistent.
The 40 percent of the pro-life supporters who think abortion should be illegal in all cases are, at least, not the hypocrites of the group.
This group of people could look at a 13-year-old girl, a rape victim carrying her rapist’s child, and condemn her to motherhood, which, at that age, under those circumstances, would be nothing short of a physical and emotional trauma.
For this group of people, I offer no argument.
I’m sure they’ll claim victory in that.
But excuse the other 81 percent of us while we fight for the protection of women’s rights.
thshowal@umail.iu.edu
@TherinShowalter
