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there were about 37 million Americans living in poverty. After eight years of the Replutocrats systematically transferring wealth to the top 5 percent, in 2008 there are approximately 41 million Americans living in poverty. (It is difficult to supply exact figures, because when the Bush administration is confronted with a statistic it doesn't like, it either makes the statistic a secret or rejiggers the formula the statistic is based on. For example, if today's rate of unemployment were calculated using 1980's formula, it would be around 13 percent.) If abortion were criminalized, that number would skyrocket.

Counting doctor visits, vitamins, adequate diet, ultrasounds, lab work, prescription drugs, hospital visit(s), and other pregnancy-related needs, it costs at least $20,000 to take a developing life from diagnosis to happy baby. Between birth and age 18, a "whole separate unique human being" will need at least $86,400, and that's NOT counting little details like school trips or swimming lessons.

In my opinion, people who are adamantly against allowing women to control their own bodies ought to contract to pay at least $110,000, indexed to inflation, to each woman whom they would deprive of freedom. If they're not willing to put their money where their mouths are, they should legally promise the unwilling mother their UNCONDITIONAL love, support, and acceptance for the next 19 years. If they won't do either one, they're not objecting to abortion on principle; they're enslaving women to their religion's dogma.

MORAL
Many people confuse religion with morality, and people who aren't steeped in their religion's dogma on human rights (and women's lack thereof) tend to allow female citizens the same rights they allow male citizens. So let's examine the moral question of female autonomy from the perspective of the book of Genesis.

Is the Bible speaking truthfully when it tells us that God created WOMEN in God's image? (Gen. 1:27 AND 5:1-2)

Anti-choicers will reply, "Yes, but—" Stop right there! There IS NO "but." Either women are created by God in God's image, or we are as subhuman as brood mares. There is no middle ground. Either the Bible is right and true, OR women cannot be trusted to control their own bodies.

If I am created by God in God's image, I have the right to control my own body and to make my own health-care decisions. If I am NOT, society ought to immediately deprive me of the rights to vote, drive, and enter into legal contracts.

Maybe I am a 12-year-old girl who was raped by her father. Maybe I am a 50-year-old woman with Parkinson's disease. Maybe the ultrasounds revealed a genetic monster who, if carried to term, would live for six months in agony before dying horribly. Maybe I have Tay-Sachs disease or sickle-cell anemia. All of these are excellent reasons for abortion.

Or maybe none of those things. Maybe I am a selfish hedonist who hates children and thinks of abortion as an expensive form of birth control. IT DOESN'T MATTER. Either I am created by God in God's image, and thus fully capable of my own relationship with God, or I am a uterus on legs, good for nothing but incubating life.

Either I am created by God in God's image, OR I am your slave. If you believe you have the right to dictate what happens to my uterus, I have the right to dictate what happens to your testicles.

The decision to have an abortion is a wrenching, deeply personal one that ought to remain between each "whole separate unique" woman and God. The RIGHT to have an abortion ought to be unquestionable.

Learn more about this author, Mary W. Matthews.
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