I had an interesting conversation with the lady who cuts my hair today. I have been going to her 3-4 times a year (I prefer a short hair style so paying to have my hair cut is one of the luxuries I allow myself) for about 5 years I suppose. Today when talking about when this next baby is due and about how this is baby number 7, we ended up taking the subject of pregnancy much further than is usually considered "appropriate public conversation." She is a very energetic, kind middle-age woman who loves life, enjoys her grandchildren and works hard as the owner of the salon. Fortunately her other employees were out on break and lunch and there was no one else around, it was just the two of us having this interesting conversation.
There was no sense of one of us 'telling' the other what to do, nor of making suggestions and we were not debating despite being on different sides of the issues, we were just having a conversation and sharing personal stories. It was a change of pace for me and it got me thinking about how many people feel the same as this woman.
When birth control came up, it was easy for me to mention the negative effects hormone treatment has on women in my family physically. From there I threw in the environmental impact hormones (and other drugs) are having on the ecosystem and pointed out how unhealthy it is not only for the plants and animals, but for people who are having their bodies messed with as they interact with the environment. Then I mentioned my step-mother-in-law who was recently diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer - she received hormone treatment for menopause which is the suspected culprit at this point. None of my logical reasons brought religion into it and while my Catholicism is a huge part of why I don't use standard forms of birth control, it is usually not helpful in the kind of conversation I was having to throw that in there. The Church has sound reasons why birth control is bad, and your average American will actually have discussions on those logical reasons, but they shut down if you use the excuse "My religion tells me to" and what is worse, by using that reason they tend to stereotype all religions with such rules as bad and their followers as mindless drones - unless you argue the logical reasons first.
Anyway, she agreed with me on the devastation of hormonal birth control and told me how hard it was for her to conceive and stated proudly that she had never used birth control (she has been happily married for 30 years). What she said next threw me a bit though. She said she is very pro-choice, it isn't any of her business what people do in their own lives...and the government shouldn't make rules about it either. I told her that I agreed completely that the government should mind its own business (which means she believes Roe v Wade should be overturned though I didn't say that in this conversation), esp the federal government. I then told her one of the reasons why I believe parental consent laws should be in place (someone close to me had an abortion at 15, didn't tell her parents and after bleeding heavily for 3 months finally said something though not about the abortion, and was taken to her doctor and was treated. Fortunately the bleeding wasn't heavy enough to have put her in the hospital or killed her, but it emphasizes the importance of having a complete medical history). I don't remember where we went from there - I didn't get into my personal feelings on the issue, though we agreed by the end of the conversation that being "too young" or poor or addicted to drugs, etc didn't mean the baby wouldn't have a good life, in fact it didn't impact whether the baby 'should' be born or not. She also restated how much she loves her grandchildren and Life (she raised one of her grandchildren for almost 10 years before her daughter got back on the straight and narrow).
The conversation left me with the feeling that a lot of "pro-choicer's" feel similarly. To them abortion isn't about the baby, it is about personal freedom. They fear losing the ability to make their own choices, so they defend the supposed 'right' for someone to murder a baby. I wonder how she feels about criminals being tried for 2 murders when a pregnant mom is killed, or about the history of Planned Parenthood (esp the racial prejudices), or even about the huge percentage of girls and teenagers and minorities who end up being the ones to get abortions, then there is the whole issue of the federal government giving money to organizations like Planned Parenthood and paying for medical insurance that provides abortions for the poor (which it does right now). There may be another time to discuss these things with her, or I can drop little hints like suggesting she watch MAAFA 21 next time I see her...so many options...
I also wonder how much farther the Pro-life movement will get if we can focus on getting the government to mind its own business - or at least approach some Life issues from that point of view (even if Pro-life is not mentioned at all). As the tea parties and town hall meetings have been demonstrating, people are sick and tired of the government telling them what to do, how to think and taking their hard earned money against their will to use it as it wants. People recognize the lack of difference between Democrat and Republican, they want more control over their lives and money and they want real representatives in the government. What a fantastic time to win people over to the side of getting the government out of Life decisions.
I am reminded of a Zomblog (Libertarian blogger) post a friend told me about recently that said in relation to National Healthcare:
"under normal circumstances I would sigh in mystification and let other people go their merry way, killing themselves with bad food. Yet once I start to ponder the overwhelming society-wide medical costs of keeping millions of unhealthy people alive for decades and decades, my anger grows. I want to ban advertisements for unhealthy foods on TV. I want to outlaw donuts. I want to tax McDonald’s to cover the full environmental cost of their products. I want to do all sorts of quasi-fascistic things that normally I would never advocate.
Because that’s what socialized medicine does: it turns each of us into a little fascist. A nagging nanny who tells other people what to do and how to live."
I tend to agree with this point of view on many, many issues. You cannot successfully legislate personal responsibility, or a change in attitudes and opinions. By getting the government to step back and put power back into the hands of the people - because they have no choice but to take responsibility for themselves and their children, I believe we can get back onto the track laid by our Founding Fathers. Will there be drawbacks and people who fall through the cracks? Undoubtedly, and that is where Christians and other well meaning people and non-profits can step in and help, it is where they have helped for years and the money not taken in taxes will come back to communities who can do so much more with less money than is currently being spent by the federal government on social services.
I know I do not have a lot of experience in this area, so my political ideas may be off on what can/should be done - and will likely change as I learn more and pick up newer ideas. However, these were just random thoughts that came to me today that I wanted to write down.
Below is the 1st clip of the MAAFA 21 documentary. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.
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