Tom's Thoughts

Name:
Location: Granite Falls, North Carolina, United States

I'm an ordained United Methodist minister no longer pastoring churches, a former media producer with skills ten years out of date, a writer trying to sell my first novel, and a sales associate keeping body and soul together working for the People's Republic of Corporate America. I'm married to the most wonderful woman in the world, who was my best friend for 17 years before we married.

Monday, March 14, 2005

Abortion Plank

It is mandatory that any political party take a stand on the topic of a woman's right to choose to have an abortion. That is the unfortunate situation with today's politics.

If we can revive the Whig Party, perhaps we can find another way. The Clinton Administration worked to keep abortion "safe, legal, and rare." The Bush Administration has made noises against legalizing abortion, but its policies have had the effect of increasing the number of abortions performed.

Both sides of the debate are right: An embryo/fetus will develop into a mature human being unless something intervenes, and a woman has a right to share or refuse to share her bodily substances with whomever she chooses.

So, as Whigs, why can't we find a way to think outside the narrow lines drawn by these other political parties? Why can't we fund research to make it possible for women who have unwanted pregnancies to donate their embryos to women who suffer from infertility? If a woman finds herself pregnant against her will, she should be able to register with a transplant agency and donate the embryo. If another woman wants to be pregnant and has not been able to conceive, she should be able to register with that same agency and have an embryo implanted into her uterus. This merely pushes the adoption process ahead eight months or so. Similarly, if a woman wants to make an anti-abortion political statement, she could volunteer to take on an unwanted embryo herself.

This way, aborted fetuses don't wind up in the dump, children can be reared in a family where they are wanted, and there is an alternative to either having an abortion or carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term.

The idea deserves public debate.