Thursday, October 9, 2008

On Politics...

You probably have never heard me talk much about politics because I never really have been interested in them, until West Wing. Zach absolutely loves the TV series West Wing, so of course I had to watch it, and I ended up enjoying it as well. This show definitely taught me more about politics and increased my interest in political candidates.

So now more than ever, with the election approaching, I thought it appropriate to share some of my political opinions about some certain issues. (I bet Zach will have a lot more to say, especially when he realizes I have posted about this issue.)

I was eating lunch with a new friend of mine, Ashley, and we were talking about a political conversation she had with a few of her friends. She said she had a fundamental issue with Barack Obama because of his support on partial-birth abortions. Just to remind you, a partial birth abortion is an abortion that occurs while the baby is being born. They turn the baby around and then suck out it's brains to kill the child. Everytime I think about this it makes me extremely sad that a innocent child is killed and extremely angry that someone would actually agree to do this. Now I know that this is probably a hard decision that the mother and doctors made and they probably didn't do so lightly, but they did come to the conclusion to abort. Now back to Obama... he actually thinks this is not so much a problem and he trusts women to make the decision. This is the exact quote from the Democratic Primary Debate in South Carolina:
"Q: What us your view on the decision on partial-birth abortion and your reaction to most of the public agreeing with the court's holding?

A: I think that most Americans recognize that this is a profoundly difficult issue for the women and families who make these decisions. They don't make them casually. And I trust women to make these decisions in conjunction with their doctors and their families and their clergy. And I think that's where most Americans are. Now, when you describe a specific procedure that accounts for less than 1% of the abortions that take place, then naturally, people get concerned, and I think legitimately so. But the broader issue here is: Do women have the right to make these profoundly difficult decisions? And I trust them to do it. There is a broader issue: Can we move past some of the debates around which we disagree and can we start talking about the things we do agree on? Reducing teen pregnancy; making it less likely for women to find themselves in these circumstances"(www.ontheissues.org)

This logic just doesn't make sense. Can we really trust people to make the right decisions about life and death? If we had this logic, why do we have laws? Why is there a justice system? Could we not handle this a different way... such as making the adoption process easy for a mother?

I don't expect the next president to be able to change the law about abortion, but I do want the next president to have morals and values that will make this country a better place...
There are many other issues I have, but I'll leave it with that for now.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That is so awesome!

I'm such a west wing fan that I have seasons 2-5 on DVD, and I'm just now finally getting Steph (my wife) to get into it...

And it is especially applicable this time of year.

I just posted about this exact issue on our blog yesterday. I'd love to know what you think!