I wonder if it's just where I work.
A few years ago I moved from a red state to a blue state. The area I live in is in many ways like where I used to be, so it's easy for me to use the mental shorthand of thinking I'm in one of those place where it's actually a mostly red state that is overcompensated by some large, ultraviolet population centers, but then someone says something that I'm shocked to hear when I'm not on the Internet.
I may have mentioned a certain coworker before; nice young lady, smart, talks about how she grew up in a conservative redneck family--and they have their issues, I won't knock her that--and then how she got to college and her eyes were opened. I appreciate her somewhat hipster taste in restaurants and breweries in the area, but I couldn't help teasing her once about professors saying "Didn't you know everything your parents taught you was a lie?" with a straight face.
Totally lost on her. But also only tangent to my point.
She's a minority amongst the abortion supporters I cross pass with these days. She likes to talk about how going to third world countries to "teach them about" contraception and abortion would be a great way to help bring education to women and bring their country to modernity.
The majority? In the abstract, I hear talk about the real hardship cases, how it's a necessary last resort for lonely and helpless women in a real bind.
In the concrete, however, "real hardship" is a little nebulous. One suggested a few weeks ago mandatory abortion for pregnant women who contract zika. Another said to me that if she found out her teenaged daughter was pregnant, they'd immediately take a trip to Planned Parenthood; no discussion, no negotiation, no consideration for alternatives. "So much for being a choice," I said. "No! She's not old enough to know what comes with motherhood!" That argument would have gone in a different direction if her teenaged daughter weren't just hypothetical, but I did notice a pattern.
There's a lot of talk about the hardship cases. But mostly there's a lot of people who want to preserve some right to a certain lifestyle, and they're willing to destroy real civil rights to get there.
A few years ago I moved from a red state to a blue state. The area I live in is in many ways like where I used to be, so it's easy for me to use the mental shorthand of thinking I'm in one of those place where it's actually a mostly red state that is overcompensated by some large, ultraviolet population centers, but then someone says something that I'm shocked to hear when I'm not on the Internet.
I may have mentioned a certain coworker before; nice young lady, smart, talks about how she grew up in a conservative redneck family--and they have their issues, I won't knock her that--and then how she got to college and her eyes were opened. I appreciate her somewhat hipster taste in restaurants and breweries in the area, but I couldn't help teasing her once about professors saying "Didn't you know everything your parents taught you was a lie?" with a straight face.
Totally lost on her. But also only tangent to my point.
She's a minority amongst the abortion supporters I cross pass with these days. She likes to talk about how going to third world countries to "teach them about" contraception and abortion would be a great way to help bring education to women and bring their country to modernity.
The majority? In the abstract, I hear talk about the real hardship cases, how it's a necessary last resort for lonely and helpless women in a real bind.
In the concrete, however, "real hardship" is a little nebulous. One suggested a few weeks ago mandatory abortion for pregnant women who contract zika. Another said to me that if she found out her teenaged daughter was pregnant, they'd immediately take a trip to Planned Parenthood; no discussion, no negotiation, no consideration for alternatives. "So much for being a choice," I said. "No! She's not old enough to know what comes with motherhood!" That argument would have gone in a different direction if her teenaged daughter weren't just hypothetical, but I did notice a pattern.
There's a lot of talk about the hardship cases. But mostly there's a lot of people who want to preserve some right to a certain lifestyle, and they're willing to destroy real civil rights to get there.
1 comment:
Thanks, but if we're going to get into the nitty gritty, it's the Church that interprets the Church, and will do so until the Eschaton. The latter-day city on a hill might in some times and places be hard to find but it will not be the one that breeds doubt and confusion.
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