Ranting away the afternoon

I’ve tried to stay off of this topic. I really have. But last night’s debate pushed me right over the edge, so I’m going to rant about it here where nobody will see it, and hopefully I’ll have it out of my system.

Last night, abortion made its first appearance in the debates. Now I’ll be the first to admit that there are bigger issues to deal with in the world today. In fact, I think that’s an excellent argument for leaving the policy (obviously the practice could use some attention, but I think of that as a local issue) alone for the moment while we handle the more important business. But if we really must discuss it, let’s get the facts straight. Please! The dreaded “partial birth abortion” seems to never go away, but nobody seems to get that “partial birth abortion” has very little to do with abortion. The candidates didn’t really even talk about it, but they never fail to get the buzz words in there because they scare people who don’t understand what they’re talking about. It is not about a silly teenager who made a bad decision (probably because of her poor education, but that’s a whole other topic) and got herself “in trouble” and is now forced to make a decision whose consequences she’s not prepared for regardless of the choice she makes. And it’s not about a poor woman in an abusive relationship who sees abortion as her only viable birth control option. Those issues need some attention, but they’re not the ones we keep talking about. The issue we’re talking about has to do with a complicated late term pregnancy that requires intervention either because the baby won’t be viable or because the mother is in danger or both. In all likelihood, it’s about an older woman. In all likelihood, she wanted the baby. And in all likelihood, it’s not about whether she’s going to end the pregnancy, it’s about how. ALL of the methods are gruesome. That’s the nature of the thing. But if one of them decreases the risk of further complications, who are we to judge? Can’t we agree to leave this particular topic to the patient and her doctor while we focus our attention on things that are actually a problem rather than further harassing a woman in an already unpleasant situation?

Politicians suck. And what sucks even more is that people buy the crap the politicians are spouting without the slightest question.