Different Takes: Simply Opposing Abortion Does Not Make You ‘Pro-Life’; Trump Needs A Female Czar On Women’s Health Issues
Opinion writers weigh in on topics about abortion and women's health.
Women are in charge of their reproductive health, and their efforts to reduce unwanted pregnancies are working. All of which leads many to believe that the timing and the similarities of this multi-state campaign reveal a purely political strategy to energize and motivate the religious right. That too is shameful. (Stephen F. Lynch 5/31)
When I served as the U.S. ambassador for Global Women鈥檚 Issues during the Obama administration, foreigners often asked me why the United States does not have a Cabinet agency or ministry for women. It struck many of the diplomats I met as odd, because dozens of other countries 鈥 including leading democracies like聽Canada, France聽and the聽United Kingdom 鈥 have a Cabinet-level government official responsible for directing policies for women and girls. (Cathy Russell, 5/28)
The fact is if you are pro-life that is great, for you, but for you to place your personal values/beliefs on someone else (especially if you are a man who will never understand what it is like to be a woman and frankly do not deserve to have an opinion on the subject) is wrong. I said it. In personal experience I have found that the people who claim to be 鈥減ro-life鈥 are also pro death penalty, pro-gun, and advocate for abstinence over thorough sex education in schools. And if we are being really honest, you aren鈥檛 so 鈥減ro-life鈥 when that fetus is born into a family of generational poverty and crime and grows up on the 鈥渨rong side of town鈥. (Savannah Short, 5/29)
President Donald Trump and his administration have undermined their very vocal support of the 鈥渦nborn鈥 by canceling the primary source of funding for studies monitoring the prenatal and postnatal effects of pollution on children.聽From the start of his presidency, Trump has appealed to pro-life evangelicals with his tough-on-abortion Supreme Court appointments and anti-abortion rhetoric. His public stance has encouraged extreme state restrictions, such as those adopted in Alabama, which essentially outlaws abortion, and Missouri, where abortions may be unavailable as soon as this week. (Faye Flam, 5/30)