Abortion and Politics

Dear Madame L,

In your posts leading up to the election you wrote a bit about abortion. You kept writing that although you opposed it in general, you thought it was up to a woman to decide for herself. 

But don't you worry about people using abortions as a backup birth control method or something like that? Don't you think we should have some kind of guidelines that would limit abortions to cases of rape, incest, or health of the mother?

And doesn't your own church teach that abortion is wrong?

Sincerely,

Glad My Mother Gave Birth to Me

Dear Glad,

Madame L is also glad you were born. Yet Madame L still thinks it was up to your mother, and should not have been decided by some hypocritical  male politician.  

Madame L used the adjective "male" because she doesn't generally care what men, who do not undergo pregnancy and childbirth and usually do not endure the difficulties of primary child care, have to say about birth control and abortion.

Madame L used the adjective "hypocritical" deliberately because she is well aware that many prominent abortion opponents think abortion is wrong for other women but okay for their own wives, girlfriends, mistresses, and/or daughters (case in point: Rep. Scott DesJarlais). 

In fact, Madame L agrees with Amanda Marcotte's statement that "... the 'pro-life family man' motif has always been just a genteel cover for base sexism, a way of putting a positive spin on the belief that women are a second class of human, put on earth to serve men." 

Madame L agrees that banning abortion outright (while, again, hypocritically, denying access to health care including birth control) tends to increase incidences of attempted abortions, while driving it underground, where it is still accessible to rich women and wives of members of Congress while even more dangerous for poor and desperate women. 

Thus, Madame L believes, the current anti-abortion rhetoric by conservative politicians is just another weapon in the wars against women and the 98 percent.

Here is the official statement of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on abortion. For a deeper discussion on the church's beliefs and social presence, you can browse through the "Commentaries" section of the church's website, lds.org.

Sincerely,

Madame L