By
Cory Spiller
Oh, the music of chanting in the streets, "Pro-life, that's a lie! You don't care if women die!" And the conservative response, "Pro-choice, that's a lie! You don't care if babies die!"
The pro-choice debate is centered around the woman and her right to choose, disregarding her political affiliation, sexual preference or the way she dresses. Unfortunately, that may have been forgotten among the different voices at the rally yesterday on the University of Arizona Mall.
The deciding factor of the abortion debate should not be to change the morals of others, but to create as much freedom for as many people as possible.
And that means protecting Roe vs. Wade.
The College Republicans were there - they were a minority, standing in the back, defiant and exasperated. Some girl who looked like she put hours every morning into looking like Britney Spears, squealed, "It's a child, not a choice."
And that's her choice - God bless America.
Everyone has different morals. Some people believe in God, and some believe the Pope is the mouthpiece of God, and some of those people listen to him when he says God doesn't want you to have abortions.
And then there are those who chant, "Keep your rosaries out of my ovaries," which is a bit off-color, but it gets the point across.
Most opponents of abortion believe it is murder and the child is alive at conception. Okay, fine, they can believe that. I am not about to argue that point, and I don't think anyone but doctors and philosophers should. But we live in a democracy, and in this country we celebrate the fact that we can have conflicting opinions.
But the problem is conservatives don't respect those who don't believe that abortion is murder.
They need to chill out, get their Bibles out of their asses, live and let live.
Even if Bush and his cronies are successful in reversing Roe vs. Wade, women will still seek out these procedures. Before Roe vs. Wade was passed in 1973, many women risked their lives to get abortions and unfortunately many of those were maimed by unprofessional procedures. More than 6 million women in America are impregnated each year, more than half of these are unplanned pregnancies, and nearly half of those pregnancies occur among women who are using a form of contraception.
The rally became confusing to me when a young woman came to the stage to perform a self-composed song with her guitar. The singer introduced her song as a commentary on heterosexual dating, more precisely about girls who get dressed up in short skirts and tight shirts and go to bars looking for their knight in shining armor. The chorus of the song went something like, "I can cook, I can clean, I can shampoo the carpet, but when it really comes down to it, he wants to fuck." I cringed.
I didn't know what to say. I felt suddenly out of place, as if I was the guy impregnating these women. And what about the girl in the short skirt that came to the rally, wearing a "Protect Roe" sticker just like me. What about our right to choose? She chooses to wear short skirts to bars, and I choose to buy her a beer. What does that have to do with abortion rights?
None of that helps protect choice or prevent unwanted pregnancies. The only way to cut down on abortions would be to cut down on unwanted pregnancies. This would require sex education and accessibility to birth control and contraception, which conservatives are either against or hesitant to provide.
I didn't see the Republicans handing out condoms at the rally. They were handing out pamphlets that, among other things, encouraged people to pray for local "abortionists" to have a change of heart.
The abortion debate is not about changing people's minds. I think we are too old and stubborn for that. Its about understanding that people have different morals, and to respect those morals we must protect a woman's right to choose.
