On Wednesday May 15th 2019, Kay Ivey; Governor of the state of Alabama, signed the
"Human Life Protection Act" into law. Everyone has been talking and even ‘walking’ about/against it, and am sure you may already know the whole gist, but let me fill you in a little more.
So the bill was initiated and supported by mostly conservative lawmakers (Republicans) in the state assembly, and appears the most stern legislation against abortion in the US at the moment. It makes no exemptions for victims of rape or incest and recommends a 10-years jail term for Doctors who ‘attempt’ the procedure, and 99 years for Doctors who perform the procedure. Under this law, abortion is permitted for only three reasons: to avoid serious health risk to the unborn child’s mother; for ectopic pregnancies; and if the unborn child has a lethal anomaly.
Here is what a friend of mine had to say about it. “It is the will of God for every life formed in the womb to live and fulfill destiny. It is also the plan of God for everyone confronted with issues such as conception (pregnancy) as a result of rape or other life threatening issues to the mother to first seek His wisdom and counsel. Medical opinion, psychologists recommendation is great but not authority. What would God have you do?” While I think this is a very frank and valid position, I am afraid this generation really doesn’t care anymore about what God would have us do, we are rather occupied with fights for our rights, freedom, and equality, among others. Fantastic fights by the way, but unfortunately not so much victory to show for it. Of course we must fight on, but I believe ‘what God would have us do’ is key to more wins.
Back to the matter. I have been thinking whether to share my thoughts on this issue, but well, here you are! My first worry though is; WHILE THE DOCTOR WHO PERFORMED THE PROCEDURE IS IN JAIL FOR 99 YEARS, WHAT HAPPENS TO THE PERSON ON WHOM THE PROCEDURE WAS DONE? Hmmm!
Anyways, I would try not to argue from a religious point, but rather from ‘reason’. So, two things!
First of, I think abortion is SELFISH regardless of the cause of the pregnancy. I am not justifying rape or incest or even premarital sex (PMS). But if anyone is unfortunate to conceive by any of these means, it’s not about JUST YOU anymore, there is another life/lives involved. True, a victim of rape/incest/PMS has to deal with the trauma or guilt maybe for the rest of their life (but hopefully not), their life would be altered entirely because of a baby for whom they didn’t plan, and so on. But there’s someone else in the picture, so let’s not be SELFISH!
Secondly, I think the days are gone when rape or incest or even PMS should be used as excuse for abortion. I don’t know so much of how the female body works, but I know that even married people (who are supposed to have sex and make babies) choose which sex (or series of sex) they want to graduate into conception, and for the others they simple use contraceptives (you probably know more about this than me) to prevent conception from even taking place. So, if married people can prevent themselves from conception, why won’t a victim of an unfortunate sexual encounter (even more so) do the same? Someone may say that conception can still happen even after using ‘adequate’ contraceptives. Well, God would not appear in a white gown on your dinner table before you hear Him speak to you, would He? What if that is supposed to be your blessing in disguise? Anyway, even if you are not cut out for all this ‘religious stuff’, by first point above remains; DON’T BE SELFISH!
I am not trivializing the gravity of this issue. Abortion is a real challenge and a very sensitive one at that. That’s more reason why it requires caution and careful thought to make the best/wisest choice among available alternatives. And you better believe it, in very sensitive issues of this kind, the majority is almost always wrong. There is more, but I’ll rest my case.
Please let me know what you think. All of you that used to read and be sending me private messages (you know yourselves), drop your comment below a-beg!
IG: @dr_mykk
#myrandomweeklythoughts
