Let’s put more emphasis on common sense
Has our divided politics reached a point of no return? Have both sides labeled the other side loud enough and long enough that they are anti-democratic Nazis and this is what we believe? Is it so bad that government wants to pass laws requiring people to like everyone?
Everybody who wants to be liked should make themselves likeable. Isn’t that a reasonable place to start. Laws can’t do that for you and it won’t happen overnight. The leaders capitalize on this division and do nothing that weakens their leadership position.
I will start with the polarization of the abortion issue. If you are pro-abortion, you are a baby killer. If you are anti-abortion, you are denying women their basic rights. Roe vs Wade tried to address the problem in 1973 and it seemed to work. It divided a pregnancy of nine months into three-month groups. During the first three months or 12 weeks it recognized the women’s absolute right to an abortion. The second three months was left to the states to legislate. And the last three months it prohibited abortion recognizing fetal viability. Finally, the Hyde Amendment ruled that federal funds could not be used to pay for abortions.
It actually worked. What happened? The absolute right to an abortion was extended to the next three months and then to the last three months. In fact, you could have an abortion at term, otherwise you were denying a woman her basic right. Mind you the complications of abortion increase with the length of the pregnancy. When a case was brought before the Supreme Court Roe vs Wade was overturned and the issue sent back to the states. It was obvious that it was not being observed. So, this is where we are.
I want to make something fundamentally clear that if a pregnancy was a threat to the life of the mother, aborting the fetus was always permitted at any time of the pregnancy before and after Roe vs Wade.
Before we reach that last trimester to abort a viable fetus you have to pass through the following:
You can prevent getting pregnant by pills or contraception. The latter is particularly important if you are having random sex because you want to prevent sexually transmitted diseases in addition to the pregnancy. Today we are dealing with antibiotic resistant gonorrhea and we still don’t have a cure for HIV after spending billions of dollars that could have gone into cancer research.
There are day after pills that will block implantation of a fertilized egg. After that you have at least three months when you can have an abortion that has no greater risk than having the baby at term. Then the risk continues to increase.
One thing that is being ignored is the male component of the woman’s pregnancy. He gets away free of everything. If he is told she is pregnant he just responds “go get an abortion.” He should be made to pay for the abortion and after three events he should have a court ordered vasectomy.
Let’s put more emphasis on common sense. The woman has rights and obligations. If you don’t want a pregnancy do your best to prevent it or get the abortion when it is safer and don’t give the radicals the opportunity to politically divide us.
Col. (Ret.) Ted Raia is a physician with 26 years of active duty in the U.S. Army, including residency in Radiology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. His last five years were spent as chairman of the Department of Radiology at Walter Reed, retiring in February of 1997. Assignments in between included NATO, commanding a Combat Support Hospital in the Gulf War and various stateside posts. During a break in service he and his wife volunteered to join Care-Medico in Afghanistan and were caught in the communist takeover in April 1978.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Let’s put more emphasis on common sense
