Response to a pro-life opinion piece published on cnn.com.

 Franchetta Groves is a college senior at the Catholic University of America.  CNN published her opinion piece in which she hopes SCOTUS overturns Roe v Wade.  I am glad CNN publishes a diversity of opinions.  I will go through some of her points and demonstrate why this seemingly well-meaning and sincere young woman misses the whole point of the pro-life, pro-choice debate in the United States.  https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/20/opinions/supreme-court-roe-abortion-women-groves/index.html

 

 

Dear Franchetta,

You tell the beautiful story of your own mother who suffered complications while pregnant with your younger sister.  Doctors urged your mother to get an abortion because she was at risk.  But despite this advice, your mother persevered and produced a healthy younger sister and thank God she did.  That is a nice story and there are thousands like it.  I myself am indirectly a product of a similar scenario.  Had my mother known I would be legally blind; she might well have had an abortion.  When she found out about my condition about six months after I was born, she prayed to God that God would kill me so I would not experience suffering.  Fortunately, as my mother often joked later, God never answered her prayers and thank God he didn’t answer that one.  I believe many who know me are glad I wasn’t aborted.  The problem with stories like this is they only show one scenario in favor of the opinion being presented.  I’m sure if you did your research, you would find cases in which mother persisted in keeping her baby and both she and the child died in childbirth.  I am 100% certain of this, in fact. Thus, feel good stories like yours and mine are not good arguments when dealing with questions of national policy because they present an incomplete and narrow picture.

 

“And I know I am in good company. In fact, according to a Gallup poll [link to poll is incluced] this year, 33% of American women are "pro-life." Combine this quote with: “Those of us who feel differently, who fervently want to see Roe overturned, also want freedom for women. We just want it for their unborn children as well.”  Franchetta, the problem with this thinking is that 67% of women disagree with you.  In case you did not notice, we live in a democracy in which the policies and laws of the country are supposed to be governed by the will of the majority, and not the minority.  And you are not even close to being in the majority.  You advocate that your 33% shove your opinion down the throats of the 67% of women who disagree with you.  This is not democracy.  Your opinion, which you state eloquently, is a nice opinion complete with good wishes for all women.  I even agree with some of it, like making sure women have supportive resources available to help them keep the baby.  Not only do I agree with you, but so do Democrats.  It is we who fund such resources.  Abortions declined more sharply under Clinton and Obama than under any Republican president because Republicans keep trying to defund supporting services while we, the supposedly evil Left, keep trying to fund them.  It was Ruth Bader Ginsberg, you know that supposedly evil SCOTUS justice who died recently, who started doing this and Democrats have supported these types of services ever since.  You probably believe the false pro-life rhetoric that  Democrats fund abortion factories.  You are a university senior.  Do better research please.  I am talking about cold hard numbers and facts that support what I state in this paragraph.  You claim you want freedom for both women and their unborn, but what you actually want is your opinion rammed through regardless of whether the other 67% of women want it or not.  News flash!  That is not freedom.  That is totalitarianism and, in your case, theocratic tyranny.  In a democracy, the majority rules.  Remember this please.  And can I just add please that the unborn never had much freedom to start with.  They don’t get to choose a damn thing in fact such as where they are born, when they are born, the parents they have, their physical and mental condition medically speaking, their race, their nationality or their financial circumstances.  Since God, from your Catholic point of view, doesn’t seemed to have ever been interested in giving the unborn any freedom, how will the overturning of Roe V Wade give them freedom they never had in the first place?

 

“After Roe, I believe it will be possible for our nation to be one that doesn't cast judgment on women who become pregnant, but one that embraces them with love and compassion. And it must also be one that always protects human life and appreciates the intrinsic value of each being from the moment of conception.”  Sorry Franchetta.  I was raised as a Roman Catholic.  Your church tells women who get an abortion they are evil murderers and will burn in hell forever and ever and ever and ever without end amen.  This has led many thousands of women all over the world, as well as in America, to commit suicide.  I hate to break it to you, but this is not love and compassion.  And in case you are wondering, the above is the official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church.  You may want love and compassion, but your church does not.  Please consider this in future.

 

“How can I support the women in my life who may be facing an unexpected pregnancy? How can I engage with those who view the issue differently than myself to engage in productive dialogue so that I can grow and learn how to cultivate a society that better supports women? I hope that the highest Court in the land deciding this issue once and for all will make it possible for me to find answers to these questions.”  Franchetta, may I remind you that on January 22, 1973, the “highest court in the land” did decide this issue.  Those in your pro-life camp did not like this decision and so they set about remaking SCOTUS until they get a decision they and you like.  Explain to me please how this time the “highest court in the land” will decide this once and for all.  You do not respect SCOTUS, or you would, like the vast majority of Americans, be content to live under their 1973 decision.  You are young and so probably do not realize that your view here means you do not actually want to rule of law to decide anything.  You only want people to enact laws you agree with.  As a result, you would be happier living under someone like Putin than living in the United States.  If SCOTUS does overturn Roe V Wade, you do realize those of us in the pro-choice camp will do what you did and remake the court until we get what we want.  Oh, but I forgot, you don’t believe in democracy.  You believe in a totalitarian theocracy.  You may actually feel you want to engage in dialog with those who believe differently from yourself.  I would like to point out that the anti abortion laws you support call for civil and criminal punishments for women who do not see things the way you do.  I remind you again this is, in fact, the majority of American women who differ from you.  This is not engagement.  This is dictatorship.

 

You seem sincere.  You seem genuinely interested in doing good.  But you are misguided and do not understand the difference between your personal opinions, and making laws and policy for a democratic country.  I hope you learn the difference because only then will you truly be a good American.