by Roz Romero

Created on: August 12, 2009

The usual opposition to publicly- funded abortions is based in the notion that "all life is precious". I wholeheartedly agree that all life is precious.

However, as long as our government involves itself in violent wars where innocent people, including babies and children, are maimed or killed by weaponry funded by the public coffers, it might as well fund abortions, too. Spending enormous amounts of money on weapons of war, yet refusing to fund the termination of an unwanted pregnancy truly stretches the "moral high ground" argument that all life is precious and should be spared at all costs. Killing is killing, and our public dollars are doing that right now.

Abortion is legal in our country and a large majority of our citizenry do not like it one bit. These same people often do not like supporting people on welfare or providing free health care, food assistance and housing subsidies, etc., etc. If abortion is not publicly funded, we should be prepared then to increase funds in our social welfare system. It is simply short-sighted not to do so especially if we, as a nation, decide that all pregnancies must be carried to term delivery.

There are many reasons why women choose abortion - and it is highly likely that for all of them - it is a highly traumatic event with repercussions that last a lifetime. Some women seek abortions because they consider themselves too economically disadvantaged to be able to care for the child. What options does society offer her to prevent or solve this circumstance? To deny her a publicly-funded abortion would assuredly put her, and her baby on the social assistance rolls.

It is said that "knowledge is power". If young girls were educated with the brutal truth about what abortion is, and provided with information about ways to avoid pregnancy, it is logical that the number of abortions would decrease. Americans have too many hang ups about sex. They don't want to talk about it at all, except to protest the implementation of sex education in our schools or to bring down an openly gay educator. The focus should be on honest sex education with a big emphasis on pregnancy prevention through education. Pretending that all we need do is teach abstinence and close the discussion, is naive. Until such time as we get our priorities straight and value pregnancy prevention education, we have no choice but to fund abortion. I hope that time comes sooner than later.

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