Anti-Choice Assault 

I felt stunned after she accosted me, thrusting a brochure with a bloody image out at me.

“Don’t vote for Kerry,” she proclaimed with youth’s self-righteous self-assurance -- “he promotes abortion, which is murder.” She spoke so fast that at first I did not understand, so she repeated more intently. I simply responded, “Don’t you understand that there’s more than one issue?” And then I walked away feeling kicked in the gut and sad. A candidate supports the law, supports a woman’s right to choose according to her conscience, not anyone else’s, and he is viciously maligned.

Those babies who are born and grow and mature are being thrown out with the proverbial bathwater. Our babies, now grown, are being sent to kill or be killed in a war condemned by millions of God-fearing people, including the Pope. No Child Left Behind is under-funded and ineffective, full of empty promises. Children grown to adulthood are losing jobs at a greater rate than ever. Millions of adults and children are facing sickness and debility with fear, without healthcare.

“Does life after birth matter?” I would ask this single-minded woman-child. “Does the president rule only over women’s wombs or are there some bigger issues here?” As long as humans govern we will be faced with knowing that our leaders will not perfectly match the standards that we set.

To be human is to be imperfect. My suggestion is that she look at the gruesome bloody images of war and see the deaths of men and women and children that are the direct result of the decisions of the man whose choices she approves. Does she not see the devastation and suffering that will endure for generations? She and her children and her children’s children must pay the price. They have no choice. She’s young, God bless her.

The Pope, the Holy Father, severely chastised George Bush. Does she know that? Do her priests and parents tell her that? Doesn’t that count for anything in the Catholic faith, in Christianity?

Regardless of who’s elected, abortion will continue as it has for centuries. It is not a political issue, but a personal health issue. What will be the condition of the already living human beings, the environment and the world? God help us all to form right consciences and vote to promote the greatest good for all in this imperfect world.

However, if George Bush is reelected I have the satisfaction of knowing that he who created the messes will be confronted with having to deal with the consequences of his choices. He will not be able to smirk from afar as John Kerry shoulders burdens that he did not create.

There’s karmic justice in that.

- Pat Snowden Dittig