No other issue on the American landscape generates more passionate disagreement than abortion. For some it is the defining and ONLY issue, and understandably so for many reasons. Those who oppose abortion do so based on their belief that a fertilized egg is a human being in its earliest stage of development and deserving of all protection. Those who are “Pro-Choice” believe a woman has the right to control what happens to or within her body. Can there ever be a middle ground that people on both sides can grudgingly accept?
Roe v. Wade is the 1973 landmark , 7 to 2, Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion based on a woman’s right to privacy under the 14th Amendment. Other cases and arguments followed about the balance between a woman’s health and protecting the potentiality of human life over the course of a pregnancy, and the ultimate viability of a fetus outside of the womb after 23-24 weeks. The Supreme Court declined to venture into determining when life began, something greater minds in philosophy, theology and science could not agree upon. No doubt more challenges to Roe vs. Wade will be made in the future.
A recent 2019 New York law makes abortion legal right up to the moment of a full term, viable delivery of a healthy baby. The NAP believes this is a poorly conceived law as it allows for potential abuse. Are there times when a decision to have a later term abortion might be justified? Perhaps. And in those extreme cases who is in the best position to decide that appropriate course of action. Read more…HERE
The New American Party Position
There is no question that we should all respect the miracle of a new human life in its early development. But life is also often cruel and messy. What do we say to a twelve year old girl who is raped? That she must carry the product of a violent assault for nine months and put your own life and possibly her reproductive future on the line over ideological purity? What do you say to any woman who is raped? What do you say to a woman who learns that her dreamed of baby in utero suffers from the severest birth defects, especially late in the pregnancy? Life is cruel and messy and a woman deserves the right to be able to make the difficult and messy decisions about whether or not to continue with a pregnancy or have an abortion.
Of course, it is not unreasonable to set limits. As a fetus develops so does the states’ responsibility to protect it. As a result, a woman’s right to choose should be protected for up to the 20th week or 4.5 month of the pregnancy. And the choice should be the woman’s alone. Once a fetus that can live outside the womb on its own it should be delivered and given a chance at life. But extreme measures need not be taken for those with the severest of medical conditions, not unlike those with DNR orders.
Some people argue that it is not unreasonable to limit the reasons for abortion to things such as rape, severe birth defects, or the physical health of the mother. They seek to prevent abortions done for trivial reasons (of which there are too many to list here.) But who would decide what those exceptions would be, and how would we police abortion “qualification tests?” No, a woman has the right to determine what happens to her own body.
It is fair to say that most Americans frown on the idea of abortion being used as simply another means of “birth control.” It goes to the heart of the American values. It may sometimes be necessary but no one should be happy about it. So it is not enough to simply be “Pro-Choice”. We also need to do more to encourage and facilitate prenatal health check-ups and adoptions. And we need to discourage unwed pregnancies, one of the surest ways to become trapped in a life of poverty.
This position is not perfect and it will not make everyone happy. It does not not play to ideological extremes, but neither does life. There are some choices about abortion that can be easily made. But it is in the grey areas on the margins where the hard choices must be made. Is the above a reasonable position based on the real world we live in? We think so, and we think many other Americans agree.
Read more on the history of Roe vs. Wade HERE