by Mary Wakefiled Buxton –
URBANNA — Sometimes I wish I hadn’t gotten into opinion writing. There are some subjects I don’t care to opine on and I wish I could just return to writing comedy, travel logs, places I visit and people I meet.
But what kind of opinion writer worth any salt skips the hard stuff and simply zeroes in on pleasant subjects? So, reluctantly, I face the challenge.
The abortion issue is one of the most tragic issues that divides Americans today. This is because we have become a nation of extremists. The moderate center cannot hold. We are forced much to our despair to take polarized sides, but I would guess that most people would prefer to settle controversial and divisive issues by compromise and moderate solution.
For the record I’m an old feminist, but those who have read me over the years know that I have greatly moderated as I have aged, which I think happens naturally as people taste more of life’s experiences and understand what other people experience beyond one’s own circumstances.
At one time I blindly supported women’s causes without question, but the day came when I realized I wasn’t just interested in lifting opportunities for women, I was interested in lifting opportunities for all people, including a fully developed human fetus that, in my opinion, has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness just as all Americans do.
I have always supported a woman’s choice to make birth decisions with her doctor and the father’s input. Her body, her choice. I supported Roe vs. Wade, even though I agreed with Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s opinion that the 1973 decision was erroneous in that it was based on privacy issues, rather than the 14th Amendment of our Bill of Rights guaranteeing all Americans due process.
I was and am willing to support legalized abortions for women with one restriction. Such a decision must be made at a reasonable point in time. The problem is that there are many differing opinions as to what that “reasonable time” is. For me, the cut off generally would be abortions would be legal up to the time when the fetus can live outside the mother’s womb.
I believe such time constraint is fair to those who are dead set against having a baby but offering plenty of time to terminate the unwanted pregnancy — but with ever a concerned eye cast to the sacred life and civil rights of a fetus able to live independently of the womb.
When women demanded the right to extinguish a fetus at any time during the pregnancy, Right to Life groups organized throughout the nation. The more people thought about what was once considered a private matter, the more distaste grew for a late-term procedure.
Who can forget Virginia’s former Governor Northam speaking to the press explaining how a “late term abortion” is done? The doctor delivers the live fetus and it is “kept comfortable” while the mother decides if she wants it.
Then what, doctor? If the mother decides no, is an “abortion” then performed?
Who does the killing? The doctor who has sworn a Hippocratic oath to “first, to do no harm?” A nurse? Or a special executioner kept on staff for such deeds?
The governor with those stunning words lost the case for late term abortions of every American who heard his shocking response.
Governments have unsavory histories when it comes to legalizing evil deeds. Look at history. When ethical people allow government to cross certain lines, you get slavery, concentration camps, termination of millions of people in gas chambers, ethnic cleansing, attempts to create the “super race,” farming and selling human organs and … late term abortions that not only legalizes destroying human fetuses but pays for it with taxpayers’ money.
I’m exhausted with the “ME” mentality of today that demands late-term abortions. A fetus at 6 months one could argue, in reality, it is no longer a “just ME” situation — it is now an “US” situation and — there is no point in trying to deny it.
Society must always protect the helpless, weak, sick, old, poor and the “minority de jour.” There is nothing more helpless than a late-term fetus. Yet a woman must not be forced by government or any other power to have an unwanted baby.
It’s not a perfect solution, but if we seek compromise and agree abortions are legal if done within a reasonable time frame, we can settle the issue. That way everyone gets some of what they want, but, like in every other issue in a democracy, no one gets everything they want.
Due process is our guaranteed civil right and that due process must include the fetus that is able to live outside the womb.
©2022
