Oct
20

Hyperbole Productions Presents: FACTORY OF DEATH.

Friday morning I flew to North Dakota to spend the weekend carousing with family, so it was late afternoon before I saw Heather’s link to my most recent post. I was flattered, and a little flustered, as if I had opened the door in my housecoat to find Andre Leon Talley and a Vogue photographer, camera at the ready.
The comments here remained quite civil, save a few, my favorite being the one referring to me as a FACTORY OF DEATH. Factory of death! I sound so forbidding. I am thinking of adopting it as my middle name: Alexa “FACTORY OF DEATH” Stevenson. Children will avoid my house, the yard of which will become littered with unretrieved baseballs.

The comments over at Heather’s were markedly shriller. She is a strong woman, to withstand the baffling quantity of ire directed at her. I believe it would drive me to drink. Most confounding, to me, was the fact that so many people felt passionately enough about the issue to write long, vituperative comments, but not passionately enough to actually CLICK ON THE PROVIDED LINK and read the entirety of my post. For instance: apparently my guilt “shone through” in my writing. I tried to remember what I was supposed to feel guilty about, but confess I was flummoxed. And then—upon closer reading of the comments—I realized that I had, in fact, terminated my pregnancy!
IMAGINE MY SURPRISE.
Creatures
{Fig. 1: Victim of late-term abortion}

For the record, however, if I had not managed to stay pregnant until 25 weeks and deliver Simone, if my infection had worsened pre-viability and I had made the decision to terminate my pregnancy, I would have felt fear and blackest, bottomless sorrow, but I would not have felt guilt for my decision. And this wouldn’t be for lack of understanding, the sort of thing that could be remedied by a few pithy facts about how far after conception the heart begins to beat, et cetera: as the parent of a 25-weeker who was less developed than expected for her gestation, I am more aware than many of the murky ethical waters of later-term abortion. Allow me to assure the government that women are perfectly capable of making decisions about their own health, complicated or not.

Another recurring theme of the comments seemed to be that I am simply naïve, and do not realize that while some women might treat these decisions with appropriate gravity, many are blithely sandwiching D&Xs between appointments to have tiny sunsets airbrushed onto their acrylic nails. These recreational baby-killers spoil it for the rest of us, you see, in the way that one paste-eating kindergartener nets a cessation of craft privileges for the entire class. Only in place of “craft privileges” put “potentially life-saving medical treatment.”
Now (bearing in mind that my legal education comes mostly courtesy of Sam Waterston), it is my understanding that this is entirely antithetical to the values upon which our legal system was founded. Our court system substantially favors the rights of the accused, under the assumption that it is better that ten guilty men go free than that one innocent man be unjustly punished. We do not get to apply laws unequally, and in general, our citizens are given the benefit of the doubt. In fact, I believe it is this principle that underscores much of our constitution.
We are given the benefit of the doubt that we are intelligent enough to form opinions on our own, with access to art, literature, and journalism regardless of how potentially inflammatory or threatening to the state. We are given the benefit of the doubt that we are informed enough to vote: ALL of us, not just the most educated, privileged, or agreeable. The belief in a right to privacy indicates a trust granted to citizens of our democracy that I believe was intended to be a step away from the paternalism of some other forms of government. Do people abuse their rights? I am certain that some do, but we protect these rights for everyone, even those with whom we vehemently disagree. If there does exist some mythical capricious aborter, it may be regrettable, but we do not legislate merely for her, we legislate for all of us.

While I am unequivocally opposed to McCain’s policies, my most strenuous objection is to his apparent thoughtlessness regarding them, and his obvious disdain for my judgment. If compassion were more for him than an expedient political buzzword, perhaps he would not be so quick to dismiss the notion that women and their doctors are as able as he to navigate the painful and complicated issues surrounding abortion.

-FIN-

By Alexa | Posted in Ceci N'est Pas Une Ecrivaine |