Politicians who fancy themselves ‘pro-life’ abound in the 28th legislature. However, as in the case of the Governor, the ‘pro-life’ label is a cruel hoax.
In their zeal to force poor women to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term, as we see in Senator Coghill’s cynical bill to redefine ‘medically necessity’ for an abortion, many so-called ‘pro-life’ champions have hardened their hearts to the reality of poverty in Alaska. Tens of thousands of Alaska households live in poverty. Many of these folks are working poor — that means that they have a job but cannot make ends meet. Most of Alaska’s poor are children. This ‘pro-life’ governor and his allies in the Legislature advocate a budget that punishes the poor by denying them needed services.
For example, the governor refuses to expand health care to poor families. How is this a pro-life policy? Is partisan political posturing is more important to Sean Parnell and Leg. 28 than caring for the afflicted?
The governor’s budget cut education, particularly Pre-K programs. How is that ‘pro-life’? The governor’s proposed budget proposes cuts to educational staff across the state for the 3rd year in a row. How is that ‘pro-life’?
Other cuts affecting life are everywhere in the governors budget such as cuts to mental health and substance abuse services. In one particularly crass and cynical maneuver, a powerful ‘pro-life’ legislator who is a Leg. 28 chair refused last year to let a modest bill for hot breakfast and lunches for poor school children out of his committee because of his political thin-skin and partisan jealousy. This bill will come back up this year. There is no reason to believe he has changed his position. How is this ‘pro-life’?
In the realm of God’s creation, the thread of life is continuous. If any life is sacred, then all life is sacred. After all, in the parable of the Ark, God did not command Noah to just save people; he instructed salvation for a diversity of endangered species. Leg 28 is determined to make it easier to pollute, easier for cruise ships to dump waste, and easier for outside mining companies to destroy salmon habitat. How is that ‘pro-life’?
The Book of James tells us that it is not by faith alone but by our acts that we shall be judged. In James’ context, the Governor’s budget is an abomination.
Elstun W. Lauesen
Anchorage
Comments (22)
Add commentPro-life is really the Forced-birth movement but I digress...
Wombs shouldn't be a dangerous place for the unborn! I come across that slogan, in various forms, from time to time. It's typically associated with the pro-life movement. Emotional arguments sway some people, I suppose.
I, however, prefer evidence when evaluating issues because, as I've learned, emotion never adds to the truth or falseness of a claim. Yes, wombs are dangerous but not always for the reasons the pro-life political machine typically state. Those who are pro-choice have a valid and right use of the slogan too.
I say that because one in four American women are denied access to basic pre-natal healthcare. The mother/fetus fatalities resulting from that denial are, it stands to reason, preventable. Almost unbelievably, American women are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in Greece from this lack of pre-natal care. Last I checked, Greece is not an economic powerhouse. American women are behind Germany too, the country at the other end of the wealth spectrum in Europe. (Source: Deadly Delivery, Amnesty International 2010).
So what's going on?
This writer tells us. She is spot on about the hypocrisy (or maybe I'll just call it weirdness) of some elected officials working to deny pregnant Alaskan women healthcare services while calling themselves pro-life. The irony here, if you haven't already guessed, is that these dangerous wombs in Alaska and throughout the US have absolutely nothing to do with abortion, but rather are the direct result of the so-called pro-life agenda.
It is a hoax. Pass it on.
Mike
Guess what, Mike & Elstun?
The hoax extends far beyond 'pro-life'. Pretty much the entire agenda from this crowd is a hoax, whether they even realize it or not.
op-piece wanders
op-piece wanders from topic of human life & responsibities to preserve & protect to PETA-esque selective cut from the Bible.
fundamental difference between pro-life and not-pro-life is whether the unborn have the same right to life as us breathing types. Everything else ascends from that.
If state programs for the poor are inadequate - and I dont doubt they are paltry - then our legislature needs to fix that; but unborn Alaskans should not be vulnerable to abortion because they are unwanted, anymore than unborn New Yorkers or unborn Montanans.
what happened to Roe v Wade?
By attempting to define "medically necessary" abortions, the committee is trying to do an end-run around the Roe v Wade decision. As pointed out by people testifying, lack of access to medicaid funded abortions will force poor women back to back-alley abortions or do-it-yourself attempts, which in the end will only cost the state more. Not to mention the extra cost of possibly raising FAS babies, etc. This bill is a cynical, heartless attempt to impose a personal moral vision on Alaska's women. It is disgusting!!
So do the "anti-women" side
So do the "anti-women" side support aboritons in the case when there is a severe genetic abnormalities (i.e. heart defect, brain development issues, other genetic diseases) that would result in the child needed permanent care? If so, how is this funded in your mind. Many individual (even with good jobs) could never imagine affording such a situation.
HOAX
Wether it a hoax or not PRO LIFE is taking away the rights of women! If a person is PRO LIFE go for it, but PLEASE DO NOT extend your feelings to people that want an abortion!
@Raininak
Should you become invalid needing permanent care in your old age would it be acceptable to post-partum abort you because you're too expensive to manage?
You may reap what you sew.
Thats the thing about "Christians"
In the end, with them, it's always their way or no way. So much of the crap they spout is drivel that one has to know that they have immense 'faith' since there is no other possible way they could actually believe some of the things they preach...
Grendel
I do support assisted suicide (dying with dignaty) and some limitations on end of life expenditures.
I bring the question becuase the reality of a severly physically/intellectually challenged indivudal is that they WILL most likely become a ward of the state (either through the death of the parents or the financial reality of the situation). Is a life of suffering in a hospital or long-term care facility a life worth bringin into this world.
Secondly, do you support euthenasia of a pet if they are in pain and suffering?
Grendel et al
Curious grendel, you are obviously a support of the life in the ragard of pregnancies (anti-abortion), but do you seek to activly support quality of life for individuals or does your passion and respect for life end when it exists? Are you willing to fund the billions of dollars needed to provide for the life long care and feeding of every child that is "unwanted" or not able to be cared for by its genetic donors? Are you willing to do that at the expense of others? Every dollar spent on such care is a dollar displaced is a bed that could be filled by another in need.
The term humanity means that you do make some decisious that are beyond black and white and into the relm of passion and compassion.
Don't ya love how the
Don't ya love how the liberals always conjure up some Bible verse to justify their agenda, atleast in their minds?
Mr. Lauesen, now could you please quote us all a verse from the Holy book to make us feel better about abortion? It's got to be in there somewhere.
It's laughable, if the life of an innocent human being wasn't involved.
Then Mr. L. takes off with all the rhetoric of the left - poor this and poor that, and oh, the children, blah, blah, blah.
You write, "the governor refuses to expand health care to poor families". You should have written, 'the governor refuses to expand health care to include MORE families that make 133% above the present poverty level'.
Gov. Parnell is trying to grow Alaska's economy by bringing in new businesses, adjusting the tax structure, keeping boat building jobs in the state, and getting rid of (or alteast getting around) onerous regulations that destroy jobs.
That, to me, sounds like a much better plan than creating more redistribution and growing the entitlement system. Everyone loses in that scenario.
Here are some of Mr. L's causes, besides being best friends with Shannyn Moore - I'd say he's pretty much an ensconced progressive.
- One Million Strong for the Employee Free Choice Act
- Bring the Guard Home (it's the law!)
- Renewable Energy Alaska Project
- Stop Pebble Mine! Protect Alaska's Renewable Resources
- Separation of Church and State
- SEIU
- Support the Coffee Party ~ an Answer to the Tea Party anti-healthcare protesters.
Raininak
I dont think you can collar anyone that will sympathize that abortion is "death with dignity."
are you equating your favorite pet with human life?
rain - you have so little
rain - you have so little faith in the human species.
We can do both - support life in the womb and support the child when he is born. Americans are funny that way.
I know one thing for sure, though - I don't want the government telling me or any member of my family when it's time to die.
Bible and abortion?
Well, there's always Numbers 5: 12 - 31
In those passages, abortion was induced by the High Priest who would give the pregnant woman a "strong drink" as a test of faithfulness if her husband suspected her of carrying a baby that was not his. If she was guilty, she would lose the baby and become infertile.
to fromdustreturned
I would be cautious about ascribing ethical behaviour to OT. Those were some crazy Jews and Yahweh was one schizo SoB.
I find it interesting that
I find it interesting that the people who question equating a beloved pet's life with a human life, are the same people that start flinging around "bestiality" in discussions on LGBT issues. Obviously, they're equal only when right-wingers say they are.....
Dignity
Grendel, I am not making a universtal statement that life of a human equals a life of a pet, I am just trying to make a comparison between our seeming universal support of ending the suffering of a sick/ailing pet as compasionate and the general view that doing the same to the elderly or infirmed is evil (even when they provide informed consent). Would you want to have your life sustained indefinatly even if you are in a vegitative or irreversable state of suffering?
I also have to say that saving a life at all costs is a stupid approach to medicine. While yes efforts should be made, should the public fund a million dollar effort to extend the life of a dying cancer patient 1 month (if at all) in every situaiton? Should everyone have unfettered access to millions of dollars of cutting edge medice regardless of the likely impact it will have on the sickness or injury? Such views overburden the system and often take away from the real life changing/extending procedures.
Calypso
"We can do both - support life in the womb and support the child when he is born." Really? I don't just mean financially. Throw money at it, that makes me human.... Right? I am talking about a proper home, love, and care. Many of these children would be cast off into foster care (best scenario) or just left to rot in a facility. I'm not saying the ones there should be killed, I'm just saying that bringing a "life" into this world that is destine to living in a medical bed the rest of its life with little-to-no real care and support from a "family" is not as humane as you make it sound.
Raininak
Your response read more like: "Then you pay for it (unwanted, invalid baby)"
The feel-good, compassionate, pro-choice crowd misses the fundamental issue: You cannot have a discussion about what-ifs until you present a consistent argument for the status of the unborn.
And on other side of the lifespan, if you set criteria that a life is not worth preserving because it cannot do A, B & C on its own, then when you, or should you, be unable to do A, B & C that just might give the govt the authority to determine that your long term care is not worth providing.
Raininak
you do realize that the euthanasia involves deliberate starving and dehydration of the patient until succumbing to death. Lots of compassion & dignity in that.
Gren
It's like that because doctors can't help people die like they should be able to. Dogs yes people no. Ok consisten argument... People choice. Consistent enough?
grendel
An egg and sperm meet in a dark alley and hook up. Have they instantly been endowed with the same right to life that I currently have? Why then specifically? Because of some biological event involving chromosomes?
But of course nothing happens 'instantly'. Slow that process down. Chemistry happens at worldly speeds. So does biology. When did this thing gain these rights?