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Why A Vote For McCain Is NOT A Vote For Life

Life is something God-breathed, something sacred. It's a mystery that no one can explain; but it is a divine gift from the earth and our ancestors. Perhaps that's why we cherish it so much. It really is all we have, when all the shells and facades and influences and experiences are stripped off.

Life is worth fighting for.

Abortion is something that people get especially vehement about every four years. What I dislike the most about this topic is the way that each side paints the other with horrible caricatures without attempting to understand and see their valid viewpoints. "Baby-killers!" "Woman-beaters!" "Sadists!" "Fundamentalist gender oppressors!"

"McCain is pro-life, Obama is pro-death." "Obama is pro-choice, McCain is anti-choice." I’m sick of all the terminology making yourself look good and the other side look like Satan.

Clarity, anyone?

Electing John McCain for President will not automatically save lives. Under the definition of pro-life, pro-life is a political stance that believes in fetal-rights. For 30+ years the GOP (God’s only party) has been using the pro-life platform and propaganda to get elected. What have they actually accomplished in these thirty years?

Nothing. No lasting amendment or Constitutional change.

Let’s look at what Bush personally enacted while in office. He introduced no pro-life legislation, and there are really only two bills that he signed into law that pro-life advocates point to as proof of fidelity to the cause. In 2002, he signed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. This act said that a baby born is to be considered a person. The actual impact of this law did nothing, since it re-stated what most state laws already said, not to mention that for doctors to ethically leave a baby to die was unthinkable. In 2003, he signed the law that made the intact dilation and extraction procedure illegal under some circumstances. Since this surgery is only used in 0.17% of abortion cases in the US, it was a moot point, but was seen as a huge victory for the pro-life side.

Assuming McCain follows in the footsteps of George W. Bush in a non-activist, pro-life stance; but nevertheless signing the bills that do get passed in Congress, we can expect more of the same. A lot of talk, but very little action.

Let’s pretend McCain does get elected, manages to nominate a few pro-life judges on the Supreme Court. A case is forced to decision in the High Court, a vote is cast, and the Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade. No abortions anymore, right? Wrong.

Brian McLaren is absolutely correct that the decision would then go back to the states to decide; and according to polls, most states would not criminalize abortion. In fact, only 10% of the abortions in the America occur in states that have at least 45% support for criminalizing abortion. At that point, pregnant women in these states could easily cross the state line to receive the surgery.

I don't believe in the legislation or criminalization of abortion. Even if abortion would be criminalized on a national scale (which is unforeseeable and impossible at this point), we have no idea what would be the effect of a society where abortion is outlawed. I wouldn't want to imagine the underground dirty abortion clinics, the inflated prices and the sky-rocketing deaths that would undoubtedly result in botched abortions by untrained physicians in unsanitary conditions.

The broken politics of pro-life vs. pro-choice is past. Nearly any person in America today would agree that an abortion is tragic and should be prevented if at all possible.

As McLaren points out,

The issue isn’t simply whether people are for or against abortion, because even among people labeled “pro-choice,” most would agree that abortion is a sad, even tragic, moral choice. The real issue is whether criminalization is the best way to reduce the number of abortions.

Ralph Nader pointed out in his run for President in 2000 that Roe vs. Wade was a non-issue. It was an issue blown up by the majority parties but really had no significance. According to NY Times Nov 1, 2000:

”Here’s what happened on that,“ [Nader] said wearily. ”The scare tactic is that would end choice in America and I just said that’s not true, but I should have been astute enough not to mention that.“ He said he did not in any case believe for a moment that Bush would seek to overturn Roe v. Wade. ”The first back alley death, and the Republican Party is in deep trouble and they know it,“ he said. He described the party’s opposition to abortion as just for show, ”just for Pat Robertson.“

His prediction turned out eerily correct; as Bush made no effort to overturn Roe vs. Wade in the eight years of his presidency, and the Democrats never ceased hyping the protection of Roe vs. Wade as a top priority.

As people of faith, we need to examine whether the past thirty years of the "pro-life" agenda has reduced the number of abortions. And if we can see past the smoke-screen and admit that it has not, then when are we going to realize it's time for the church to step up and take action?

We can't become so disillusioned that we quit caring, as Eugene Cho reminds us,

[Even though] I don’t want to be defined by one or two issues, I still care much about those one or two issues. While I can’t honestly come to agree that abortion is the greatest moral issue of our day as some are proned to say, I know that God cares immensely for the unborn and thus, we must care as well. God also cares for the born and thus my “womb to tomb” ethic of pro-life.

A friend was forced to have an abortion because she couldn't afford to have the baby, much less keep it. She was 15 and the psychological trauma afterwards wrecked her life.

How long is it going to take before we offer a faith-based approach to reducing abortions by helping out with better sex education, healthcare, housing and counseling?

A vote for McCain is a cop-out. It's a vote for the establishment; a vote for 30+ years of failed policies that create a smoke-screen to hide the real solutions to a massive problem. A vote for McCain is not a vote for life.

Abortion isn't the only machine that kills people. McCain would keep us in expensive foreign wars, sending our sons and daughters to kill and die for the glory of America as we become a bigger monster in order to defeat a monster. Pro-life apparently believes in the right of a fetus to life; but not in the right of a terrorist or an Iraqi freedom fighter to that same liberty. Not to mention convicted felons on death row who may or may not be guilty.

No matter who is elected, the world will go on and we will see a new regime erected under the guidance of a new world leader; and one of the two majority parties now in leadership.

What is most important is not how you vote on November 4; it's how you live on November 5 and the days following. How will you make a difference?