So, this is the last blog post of the year. What better way to celebrate such a momentous occasion than by discussing one of the most divisive issues in the nation: abortion. Abortion has been in the news a lot in the past decade, and recently it has been talked about for all the worst reasons. The nation’s dilemma with abortion is whether or not people should be able to get one and up until what point in the pregnancy is it okay to do. These questions make sense for people to ask while making the decision to get an abortion. However, these questions should be answered by the individual people and not any facet of the government. That’s the current issue that America is facing, the government is attempting to make sweeping, general decisions on one of the most personal matters out there. And to make things worse, the government doesn’t even seem to actually be discussing the issue at hand, they’re just picking a side and sticking to it based on what their party says.
For those of you scoring at home, you’ll realize that this is once again a problem caused by partisan politics. In this case, partisan politics has served to politicize the decision to get an abortion. Similar to the effects that this behavior had on climate change, abortion has become a taboo subject in America. If you bring up abortions, you’ll most likely be shut down instantly because it’s ‘too political’. What makes it political, though? It is a single person recognizing that terminating their pregnancy would be best for them. It is one of the hardest decisions a person could ever make, but politicians treat it like something the government should be directly involved in. This is dangerous and is bound to have horrible consequences over the next several years.
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So, what are the results of partisan politics within this issue? Well, through partisan politics each of the two major political parties has basically just claimed either the ‘pro-life’ or ‘pro-choice’ stance on abortion. In general, the Democratic Party has taken the ‘pro-choice’ stance. This basically just says that the pregnant person should have the right to choose what they are doing with the pregnancy. Essentially, the ‘pro-choice’ belief is just agreeing with the original decision made in Roe v. Wade. In this decision, the Supreme Court stated that a person has the right to choose whether or not to get an abortion up until a certain point where the state then has an interest in protecting that life. The Democratic Party has taken to agreeing with this decision and attempting to pass legislation that would protect a person’s right to have an abortion. Now, protecting a person’s right to an abortion does not mean they are encouraged to get one. It simply means that they can if that’s what they decide is best for them. Abortions are sometimes necessary, such as in the case of an ectopic pregnancy, and people should be able to decide for themselves what is best for their body.
On the flip side of the Democrats’ view of the issue, the Republican Party has claimed the ‘pro-life’ stance. This basically just means that they believe abortion is wrong and people shouldn’t be able to have them. The Republican Party, in general, believes that it should be up to the states whether or not their residents have the right to an abortion. In fact, after Roe v. Wade was overturned many red states immediately began working on passing legislation that would effectively ban abortions. One such example of this actually just happened in Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida just signed a 6-week abortion ban into law. Any sort of abortion ban is insane, but banning it at 6-weeks makes it clear that Florida Republicans don’t care what consequences their law brings, they just want to act morally superior. Politicians treat abortion as a moral issue, and by taking the ‘pro-life’ approach Republicans are able to act as though they care about the unborn lives and Democrats don’t. This isn’t true, but it’s the narrative that is perpetuated through the actions and statements of the Republican Party. Once again, the parties aren’t working with citizens’ best interest in mind, they just want to argue with each other about something they shouldn’t have any say in.
Abortion is definitely a heated topic, so I will not on my personal views but I think as our nation, we need to start being pro-people. We need to make a decision as a nation that is best for us and our neighbors, rather than what fits into our narrative and situation. It is really easy to say what you may do in a situation (if you would get an abortion or not), but when it comes down to the real moment, that may change. We need to be empathic to people under this topic.
I feel like this hasn’t been talked enough about recently. The Roe v Wade decision was overturned sometime last year, and I haven’t really heard a lot about it since. I think you bring up a good point about when something should or shouldn’t be political. We live in a time where even the most simple moral dilemmas are so divided due to politics.
I think this was a great blog and I’m glad you made it more about the people’s choice rather than the government’s decision. Some things aren’t meant to be political and I think you are right in saying that this topic shouldn’t be as political. Everything seems to be divided this day in age and it is hard to see.
I appreciated how you viewed the issue of abortion from the perspective of representatives attempting to score political points rather than address the needs of their constituents. While abortion is certainly a unique issue for many reasons, this angle allows us to relate it to other issues, such as the debt ceiling, where parties attempt to prioritize maximizing political utility over what may actually be in the best interest of Americans.
I hate partisan politics so much. Instead of working to do what’s right, each party tries to differentiate themselves. Because of this, you have Democrats as pro-choice and Republicans naturally as pro-life, which glosses over the fact that abortions are often pro-life for the mother and pro-life means no choice. But hey, small government is good, as long as it’s a small government that’s controlling your life.
I completely agree that most issues have become very political in America. And I also agree that partisan politics is one of the biggest causes of this. There is such a great divide between groups with separate beliefs that there is rarely a time when people will genuinely listen to someone who holds differing values than theirs. Not many people have been talking about abortion since the backlash from the overturning of Roe v. Wade.