Hot Button Issues with Amy Jo

When we came home from dinner on Election Day, Amy Jo and I had a Brit conversation about one of the most hot button political topics out there: abortion. I am and always have been pro-choice. Mom is also pro-choice, but she's always been a bit more conflicted about it than I have. Maybe conflicted isn't the right word; that makes me sound pretty heartless, but I can't think of a better word. She's always been of the "I would never get an abortion because it conflicts with my moral and religious beliefs but it's not my place to tell someone else they can't get one" camp.

She opened the conversation by telling me that she'd been thinking about the abortion issue earlier that day. Here are the things she thought of:

• Why do we put the rights of the fetus above the rights of the mother? Everyone is always talking about the life of the fetus. But what about the life of the woman, who is already alive? Why does that seem to matter less?
• The more I think about it, the more this seems like a right-wing, ultra conservative way to keep women down. To take away a woman's ability to make a decision about her own body makes it seem like she can't possibly make the decision herself.
• A lot of people oppose abortion because of religious reasons. Why do people think they can legislate others into the kingdom? It has to be a change of heart. Just because it becomes illegal doesn't mean people won't do it. Something being illegal has never stopped a lot of people before. Take a look at the war on drugs, drugs are illegal and that doesn't stop people from doing them.

My response when she was done talking was, "Welcome to what I've been thinking for a long time." She's pretty smart, my mom. I'm lucky to live with such a forward-thinking Christian (so often those traits are mutually exclusive).

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