36th Annual March for Life

Yesterday was the 36th annual March for Life on Washington, since the Supreme Court decided Roe vs Wade, in favor of a woman's right to make her own reproductive choices. The anti abortion movement is about more than just limiting women's rights. It's about forcing women to bear children even if the babies are severely disabled or certain to not survive. It's about forcing a woman to bear children even if she has no resources to raise them. Even if the father is her rapist, grandfather, father or brother. It's about not allowing women access to birth control, even for protection against diseases that could kill them, in situations where the person coercing them into sex might be the only one providing them with shelter and sustenance or may even be her legal guardian. It's about requiring sexual abstinence from women, even when abstinence is not one of the choices available to her.

The anniversary of Roe came the day after the Presidential inauguration this year. The organizers of the March for Life wanted a good turn out. Huge numbers of students at religiously affiliated high schools and colleges were given a few days out of class to attend. Transportation, lodging, food and even entertainment was provided. They got a good turnout, needless to say.

Some of the students turned the tables on the organizers. Alden Woodhull a sixteen year old girl who attends a Catholic high school, organized a group of her friends to stand outside the Supreme Court building with signs supporting the right to abortion, reads a story in the Washington Post.

"I just want people to know there's another side," she said. "Personally, I would choose to not have an abortion if I was pregnant. The point is, it would be my choice."

People's beliefs about reproductive rights in this country fall into a spectrum. A majority believe that a woman has a right to make decisions pertaining to reproductive function at all times. Some others believe that there should be limits placed on a woman's rights to some degree, large or small, depending on circumstance. Almost everyone believes women should have access to a wide range of birth control options. Almost no one, with the exception of leadership within the Catholic clergy, a small percentage sub Saharan Africans and George Bush, believe that access to barrier methods of birth control that also are vital to preventing the spread of sexually transmitted disease should be restricted.

There was a time in this country when peoples beliefs about social issues such as abortion were personal. They might have even been the kind of beliefs that were not shared casually. That is no longer the case. Abortion has become one of the litmus test issues between the left and right. We use it the same way dogs sniff each others asses to tell the good guys from the bad guys. This is no more or less true for the right than for the left. It just is.