If babies brought us money instead of costing us a small fortune, if they brought us extra time instead of monopolising it all, if they moved our careers ahead instead of stalling them, if they cleaned things instead of always needing to be cleaned, or if they got us good tables at fancy restaurants, there would be no debate about who pays to terminate a pregnancy.
But the debate roars on, and it just cant stop being about the money. The Texas Senate just approved a plan requiring separate insurance coverage for abortions, even abortions in the case of rape or incest, making it the eleventh state restricting abortion insurance coverage in private insurance plans.
According to Senator Brandon Creighton, “Texas must take steps to prohibit taxpayer and premium dollars from subsidizing abortions that are not medically necessary.”
Lets take a step back from our respective positions and ask what it is about Western society that still makes this issue so cumbersome. Why are so many pregnant women forced to make decisions whose negative effects they may never escape? Why do even planned pregnancies leave mothers feeling exhausted and hopeless, obliged to sacrifice themselves to compensate for a culture that only wants to take their money and run?
Babies and their moms need ready access to good nutrition, safe housing, adequate rest, social supports, education, and personal fulfillment. To be pro-life and refuse to fund such resources or to be pro-choice and demand access to funding for abortions while quietly tolerating social conditions that prevent mothers and children from thriving is hypocritical.
The only way to be sincerely pro-life and pro-choice is to stop making it about the money and to start becoming a society that rushes happily to the task of rearing new children and empowering the personal freedom of their mothers.
It takes a village, people. Lets get busy.
Wanda also writes the blog The Mindful Bard:The Care and Feeding of the Creative Self.
