I’m not much for Super Bowl half-time shows, though I appreciate that Rihanna successfully ordered a racist presidential candidate to cease using her music at rallies. My wife said Rihanna looked pregnant.
“Pro-life” folks have seized on Rihanna’s pregnancy as if it contradicts her political views. They evidently believe that supporting people’s rights to decide stuff about their own bodies means being against pregnancy.
Pride in a pregnancy, and love and hopes for a child, aren't inconsistent with believing women whose pregnancies are dangerous, abusive, unhealthy, financially disastrous, or just too damned inconvenient right now should be free to end them.
When friends have babies, we share in their delight. Pregnancy, when the child is welcome, is a joyful event. Some pregnancies are joyless. Sure, an unexpected pregnancy can work out fine; but it’s not our business to order folks to abort or give birth.
But the folks twittering about Rihanna see choice supporters as evil, baby-hating monsters. “You voted for Biden but you’re delighted a grandkid is coming? Jeez, what a hypocrite!”
The love and support I’d offer a pregnant friend or relative is not conditioned on whether or not she plans to give birth. If I have an opinion, I might, if asked, mildly voice it. But only as another perspective to toss into her bucket of thoughts and emotions, and factor in – if she cares to. Sure, a desired pregnancy is cause for celebration, while abortion is a medicalprocedure. I’ve never heard anyone express delight at that prospect, but neither need it be debilitating. Bottom line, women should be free to handle their pregnancy as they choose, or feel they must.
I was over 21 when Roe v Wade was decided. I recall the debates thereafter, which seemed largely a part of what are now called “the culture wars.” Some people were frightened or appalled by the specters of “free love,” drug consumption, contraception, draft resistance, and integration. There was a (partly generational) battle over various freedoms.
People argued about what was morally right and whether those with restrictive codes of conduct could continue imposing that code on others: making girls and women wear bras, limiting how sexy dances could be, stifling free speech, and otherwise ensuring that the young followed the established mores and habits, and that rebellious youth behaved “like decent Americans.”
Few spoke of “protecting life.” (To anyone who knew a woman who suffered because her illegal abortion could not involve a hospital, even if things went wrong, the anti-choice frenzy hardly seemed life-affirming.)
A minor official in the Reagan Administration largely invented that rhetoric about killing babies to entice Evangelicals. “Fighting for the life of unborn babies” sounded far more catchy than “forcing pregnant women to give birth.” Heroic, almost. Unborn fetuses were now described as children, to suggest that permitting abortions is like massacring children toddling around a Christmas tree.
“Pro-life” is arrogant and inaccurate. In growing vegetables, writing poetry, trying to improve people’s lives, and urging peace and tolerance, I feel as life-affirming as anyone. I’m pro-life, though I’ll insist on ending my own life when it’s time.
Ironically, “pro-life” advocates not only ignore pregnant women’s life, health, and safety, they tend to be loudest in supporting capital punishment, and least energetic about ensuring the newly-born, even if poor, get the medical care, physical and emotional nourishment, and quality education that ensures we all thrive beyond the womb.
Does that make sense?
– 30 --
[The above column appeared Sunday, 19 February 2023, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website and on KRWG's website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7 FM) and on KTAL (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/) and be available on both stations’ websites.]
[I wanted to write about our great loss, the death of J Paul Taylor at 102. But I also thought it might be better to wait, and write after whatever public ceremonygenerated more praise about him. I’ve written of him often in this space, and will agao next Sunday or the one after. (His funeral is set for Friday, beyond my next deadline.)
[And I feel strongly about what I did write on. The usurpation of the phrase “pro-life” by folks who least live in ways that foster life and freedom is always an irritant. At some later date, I’ll write about the huge irony of citizens misusing the words of Jesus Christ to perpetrate just the kind of hatred and judgments he spoke against. Enough, though! Enjoy your Sunday!]
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| Tompkins Square Park, Manhattan - 1968 |
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