Reproductive freedom is a civil right

To The Eagle:

I, too, was entertained by that ‘submarine’ jibe about my fumbled logic, when I attempted to correlate the tragedies of maternal childbirth deaths and abortion.

I’ll even accept without argument Mr. Schreiber’s rather expansive conclusion that “Using (my) ‘insane logic’ means that in 100 years there won't be any humans anymore.” Considering the litany of horrors people have been inflicting upon each other for centuries, that would not be an altogether bad thing.

Mr. Schreiber’s MAGA propaganda that “the Democratic Party wants no limits on abortion at all up to even partial birth; an ugly fact liberals have to live with” inaccurately mischaracterizes the Democrats’ position, which does not promote unlimited abortion on demand.

“Late term” (‘partial birth’ is a hideous political falsity) abortions during the third trimester, occur during difficult, heart wrenching circumstances such as fetal death in-utero, or a host of fatal genetic abnormalities precluding post birth survival, or a pregnancy gone fatally toxic with the fetus lost during the attempt to save the mother’s life. Such are the “ugly facts” glossed over in political rhetoric that we liberals, as well as those unfortunate mothers, do indeed have to live with.

Right wing rhetoric also mendaciously suggests “late-term” abortions happen frequently. The truth is that they do not. Though the CDC reported 620,327 abortions nationally in 2020, the statistics available regarding “very late term, last-trimester abortions " are as vanishingly rare as the occurrence of the procedure itself.

For reasons still poorly understood by science, Mother Nature routinely culls her unborn. There were 20,854 miscarriages, and 21,000 stillbirths reported in the United States in 2020 according to the Vital National Statistics Report. With the additional 1,205 women who died during childbirth, there were 43,059 natal fatalities in 2020.

One could argue that women selectively aborting their fetuses for their own reasons, emulates nature itself. Women’s liberty to make their own reproductive choices should be a basic civil right. Like other ‘rights,’ its regulation is reasonable. For many sad reasons, it should remain an available option. As former President Clinton stated “abortion should be legal, safe, and rare.”

JB Bouchard

Puget Island