Yikes. Another Left2Right Wipeout

Ms Sanders (one of the horde at Left2Right) has penned a truly goofy post on abortion. Her hook is that the left should abandon "choice". But what she means alas is just the word choice. She thinks a fetus is a parasite. It draws blood and life from the mother. How much more ghastly is the newborn infant. It draws sleep, sanity, and what little strands of patience are left to the whole household. Heck by those arguments, infanticide by siblings should be legalized as well.

She says for example:

Left2Right: Alive and Kicking: Yet it is also true, but so much less remarked upon, that pregnancy too involves blood, gore and indeed something like a parasitical relationship. Embryos, fetuses and babies do not neutrally reside in their mothers' bodies, but actively draw from them ... (snip)... But it seems to me that we treat mothers' bodies especially lightly, as if pregnancy did not suck anyone's blood.

and

The right needs to acknowledge that a pregnancy requires some citizens to put their bodies in harm's way: if the state compels pregnancy, then perhaps it should compensate mothers for the use of their bodies.

Now this last bit is just plain wrong. If Roe v Wade were repealed in favor of restricting abortion to (truly) just saving the life of the mother and in the rare cases of incest and rape (I have heard that is less than 2% reasons for current abortions) virtually every single pro-life supporter would be behind it. So let's drop the "state compels" argument right now. It's just wrong. Honey, nobody's being compelled to do anything. We anti-abortion people are just wondering when you pro-abortion people will wake up and smell the holocaust in your midst.

Furthermore the view of a fetus as "parasite" is just completely weird. Let's face it, the demands on a person for the next 20 years are going to so far outstrip the demands of pregnancy and childbirth it beggars the mind. Now as a father I'll admit the pregnancy and childbirth were far easier on me than Mrs Pseudo-Polymath. But I submit that for her the mental and physical stresses of the last 6 years have been harder than mere pregnancy. Pregnancy at least doesn't include forced sleep deprivation like the first three months with a newborn. And please, explain how a sane person comes to view the miracle of the growing life as shared by two loving couples is a freaking parasite!? I wonder how she might explain that view to someone like my younger daughter (8 years old) who dotes on anything resembling a baby. I think (rightly) my daughter would think her evil or mentally unbalanced.

Ms Sanders writing on childbirth, pregnancy, and the responsibilities of rearing a child comes of sounding quite theoretical. Perhaps she should try learning first hand what it entails. Then perhaps she will herself in the unenviable position of having to support a position publicly which she does not support in private.

Now I know, even tonight, I've tendered the opinion that all of those on the left are not evil, stupid, or uninformed. Perhaps Ms Sanders just expresses herself poorly, or perhaps does not actually believe what she writes. One can hope. The alternative is unfortunate.