“My body, my choice?”
I don’t know if there has ever been an issue, at least in my lifetime, that has been demagogued as much on both sides as the right to terminate a pregnancy by an abortion.
Maybe that’s because neither side can see any way to a legitimate compromise.
And unless forced, neither side even uses the word “abortion” in describing their position on the issue.
Those who don’t believe women should have the right to terminate a pregnancy call themselves “pro-life.” which would mean a whole lot more if they cared what happened to the babies after they were born.
The folks on the other side, who believe abortion is a fundamental right have taken to calling it nothing more than “the right to choose,” and saying their opponents are against allowing a woman to choose.
So there is hypocrisy on both sides in how they present their cases.
Especially with the appropriation of “my body, my choice” by the folks who are opposed to being vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus and its various mutations.
Let’s be fair. There is not a 100 percent correlation between left and right on the two issues. You can’t say everyone who’s anti-abortion is also anti-vaccination, just as folks who are pro-choice aren’t 100 percent in favor of mandating vaccines for everyone.
Those on the right who oppose being vaccinated would argue that it’s not the same thing, They would argue that abortions result in deaths and that it’s not the same as them choosing not to wear a mask, socially distance or refuse to have the shots.
Of course it isn’t that simple. It’s possible to have the virus and not even know it, and it’s possible to be disease-free and still pass the virus to someone else.
The problem is that we’ve gotten too good at dealing with disease. Even with AIDS, there may be no cure, but people are still able to live with it. Even with the COVID-19, there have been more than 48 million cases in this country, but as of today, just under 780,000 deaths.
While that’s a horrific number, it’s still less than a quarter of 1 percent of the American people.
And one thing has always been true. More than just about any other people on earth, Americans tend to believe it can’t happen to them.
Also, there seem to be more and more people on both sides who are happy to tell other people how to live their lives but refuse to allow other people to tell them the same thing.
That makes for a very difficult situation.