American conservatives, fundamentalist Christians on rape, pregnancy and God: no abortion, pregnancy from rape is a gift from God. Really? | ||||||
American conservatives, fundamentalist Christians
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Sometimes People Don't Think - like about rape, pregnancy and abortion According to an American conservative politician, while god that doesn't stop rape, he sometimes hands out pregnancy as a gift afterwards. (And as the pregnancy is a gift from god, it is immoral to have an abortion.) Sometimes people don't think - that's my strongest response. In fact, often people don't think. Instead, what passes for thinking is frequently the mind jogging along a familiar path, unaware that it's avoiding stuff like good thinking. Why do I care? I've always cared. Then, right now, many of those alert to the dangers of Islam, willing to voice criticism of Islam are American conservatives, fundamentalist Christians who don't see their own flawed thinking. Why does this matter? Two major reasons. One. Poor thinking and poor moral priorities lead to massive pain for people. Poor thinking: who can conceive of a god who permits rape but intervenes afterwards and hands out pregnancy? It makes no sense. Any god in his or her right mind would be better occupied preventing rape than doling out pregnancies afterwards. Poor priorities: in this politiician's view, the woman, having already undergone the trauma of rape, is not given priority, to make her own choice re any resulting pregnancy. The second reason why the flawed reasoning matters. At present, there's a further consequence. Shooting oneself in the foot. Okay, so you want freedom of speech and don't want Islam imposed. Sounds good. But what about other things you want (like no abortions or no equality for gays)? That's what your god wants, you claim. This argument puts you on a par with those Muslims who want Sharia because that's what their god wants. What makes what you want any better than what they want? Both of you believe you have god on your side. ** Common conservative weaknesses, particularly common among Christian fundamentalists, in thinking about rape, pregnancy, abortion. Some seem to have skipped learning anything about human biology, like how pregnancy happens. A Republican candidate recently said that women could not get pregnant from rape. We supposedly need to agree to get pregnant. He was corrected, but how does someone like him even exist? Of course, jihadis exist, so why not someone like this. My point, though, is that American conservatives need to look at their own flawed thinking and flawed understanding of reality. Another American conservative politician (this piece was inspired by him) holds that if a raped woman gets pregnant from the rape, she should not have the option of abortion as the pregnancy is a gift from god. In other words, god has done nothing to stop the rape. But afterwards god decides to give the woman a gift: pregnancy. (The "gift" is given without consulting the woman - so in this politician's vision, god is not so different from the rapist, doing something to the woman against her will). What kind of god is that, allowing rape and then bestowing pregnancy as a gift? Another example of poor thinking, this time from an email that recently came into my inbox - obviously created by someone totally anti-abortion. It shows a photo of a sweet-looking young woman. Below the photo it says something like: "Created through Rape. To have allowed the mother an abortion would mean this lovely young woman would not exist." That sounds exactly like the traditional argument against birth control: most people would not exist, if the parents had had access to birth control, so birth control should not exist. I have a second counter-argument. I think of my father, the product of a long marriage with much violence against his mother and the children. Had there been any help for his mother, 7 of the 8 children would not have existed. My father would not have existed. And I would not be here. The argument would then be - identical to the one for the young woman who is the product of rape - that so many people would not exist if women could leave abusive relationships, so it's important that the women be forced to stay. Those have been enough examples of flawed thinking. Better thinking. My general position: healthy priorities. I give priority to a woman - over potential children (so I support her leaving abusive relationships that might produce children, and so I support birth control); - over an egg that could be fertilized (and so once again I support her right to use birth control to prevent pregnancy), - over a fertilized egg (and so I support her right to take the morning after pill), - over an embryo and foetus (and so I support her right to abortion in the early stages - at least until 3 months). My thought for American conservatives: create a mandatory workshop for all politicians that covers stuff like: Ethics 101, Good Thinking 101, and even Female Biology for Dummies. Elsa October 28, 2012 previous next |
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