Sanctity of Life

I'm taking a moment today to return to my earlier topic of abortion.  In case you haven't figured it out, I'm a Pro-Choice supporter.  In fact, I can think of no time in my life that I was not a Pro-Choice supporter, even during my most religious phase.  As much as anything though, it is because I cannot support the Pro-Life movement.  I find Pro-Lifers to be generally hypocritical and contradictory.  I'm not saying that this is true of all Pro-Life supporters, but simply the majority of my own perception.

The Pro-Life movement claims that abortion is the termination of a human life, and therefore murder.  Since murder is against the law, abortion should be illegal.  It's a straightforward logical assumption.  Yet, despite the idea that abortion is murder and murder is illegal, members of the Pro-Life movement believe that it it perfectly alright to plant bombs in abortion clinics, killing doctors, nurses, aides, as well as the mothers and children Pro-Life claims to be protecting.

It's a little extreme, I know.  A few fanatics among the movement.  But it keeps happening.  This conveys to me that the Pro-Life movement has done little, if anything to discourage this kind of behavior, or to point out the hypocrisy of blowing up clinics.  To some, it might seem like justice, executing murders.  However, even if one follows the thinking that abortion is murder, our country requires trial and due process.  For a private citizen to execute or detain an alleged criminal is vigilantism, which is also illegal in the United States.  In the modern context, using a bomb, or any other indiscriminate weapon is also considered terrorism.

Once more, the point of Pro-Life is to support the sanctity of life.  However, many of the Pro-Life people I have spoken with also believe in the Death Penalty.  How can we claim that life is sacred if we are willing to throw a life away to appease lives lost?  Can we justify death with more death?  As investigative technology advances, we have discovered numerous instances when innocent people were jailed.  How many have been executed?  A person can be freed from prison, even if we cannot restore the time they spent there.  But once a person has been killed by the state, how can we make that right to discover that they didn't commit the crime?

Another platform that Pro-Lifer's seem to agree on  is reduction of Welfare.  They claim that Welfare is nothing more than lazy people leeching of the state.  While there are some who take advantage of the system, I see nothing that indicates that the majority of people are like that.  It's strange that the same group who insists that the government force every woman who conceives to give birth also believe that the government should do nothing to provide for the child's well-being after birth.

A number of Pro-Life individuals I've spoken with also believe in Abstinence Only Sex Education.  While the notion that teens shouldn't have sex seems noble on the surface, statistics indicate that such teaching is unrealistic.  Regions that engage in Abstinence Only programs have higher rates of teen pregnancy, not lower.  The thinking seems to be that teaching children only to not have sex rather than to use contraception only introduces the idea of sex without the context of responsibility.  Teens begin engaging in sex, but don't know how to prevent pregnancy.  More pregnant teenagers means more abortions.

History has demonstrated that anti-abortion laws do not lower abortion rates.  In fact, they increase mortality rates for women from back-alley abortions and at-home abortion methods.  What will decrease abortion is better sex education, the availability of contraceptives, and investment into alternatives, such as adoption and the foster care system.  If the Pro-Life movement was genuinely "pro-life", this is where they would be exerting their energy.

The Eye of the Beholder

Growing up, I fawned over Cindy Crawford and Pamela Anderson.  They were sexy and I liked that.  I of course knew nothing about them personally, other than their chosen professions and they fact that they had bodies and faces I enjoyed looking at.  At some point early on, I was aware that this was an illusion.  "Real women don't look like that."  Airbrushing aside, we are discussing women who's professions are built around looking good and being attractive.  And then we add in the fact that advertisers and magazines do airbrush and digitally alter images.  Truthfully, we have to wonder if we really know what any woman we haven't met face to face looks like.

A few years ago, I was talking with a friend who asked me about what I found attractive.  I described my "ideal woman".  When I was done, my friend laughed and said I had just described her sister, who I had never met or even seen a picture of.  It was funny.  Though I won't go into details, I will note that the image I held in my mind wasn't entirely based on Ms Crawford, or Ms Anderson.

A short while later, I found myself looking at a woman from across my favorite club.  She was gorgeous.  She was a big girl.  She was incredible.  It was fascinating to me because I knew she didn't fit my "ideal", nor was she "beautiful" by the standards of magazines and television.  It also took me by surprise.  But she caught my attention, and held it.  I didn't know then why I liked her.  I can see it now.  She was confident.  She smiled.  Her body moved in amazing ways.  It didn't hurt that she wore corsets and bodices to perk up her ample breasts.

I like breasts, and legs, and waists, and thighs, and butts, and hair, and eyes, and smiles.  I especially like eyes and smiles.  Women are amazing. They come in all beautiful shapes and sizes.  Beauty only has signs on the surface.  It's more.  I had to learn that.  My mind, emotions, and body knew that on a subconscious/unconscious level, but it's only in the last few years that I've begun to bring that awareness to the surface.

I've heard the phrase "real women have curves."  I've said it once or twice, but it was because I appreciated the beauty of curvy women.  But thin women can be beautiful too.  I'm not claiming that I find all women attractive.  But I also realize that my personal tastes shouldn't be a basis of judgement.

Beauty stems from self acceptance and confidence.  Not from how big or small some part or another of your body is.   Trouble is, I'm still learning that lesson myself.