Tim Shipe: A Child's Right to Thrive

Excellent column by Tim Shipe from Florida Today:

Pro-life advocates should back programs to aid children
Florida Today www.floridatoday.com
Tim Shipe, Guest Columnist
January 25, 2009

The issue of abortion was not the compelling concern for a majority of Americans in the last elections, but it is still a powerfully divisive legal and moral contest that pits pro-life versus pro-choice in a heated competition for hearts and minds.

It is tough to find common ground or fresh areas for public debate, but as a pro-life Democrat I am accustomed to thinking outside the pack.

Most pro-choice political leaders are quick to say that they are not pro-abortion, but are interested in abortion reduction without outlawing the procedures. Many pro-life leaders similarly claim they are also committed to reducing the numbers of abortion even as they seek a final legal solution of defining the right to life.

There are a couple of bills coming back for consideration in Congress that will test the truthfulness of these politicians’ claims.

The Pregnant Women Support Act is being promoted by Democrats for Life as a means of reducing abortions 95 percent over the next 10 years.

This bill would provide more adoption incentives, much needed funding for WIC programs that provide food for women, infants and children, and provide resources and support to help women continue their education if they keep their child or make an adoption plan for their child.

There is so much good in this bill I can only pray President Obama will seize upon it to demonstrate he isn’t going to be the most pro-abortion president in history, as is now claimed about him in pro-life circles.

The Feminists for Life organization has been spreading the word that “45 percent of women who have abortions are college age” and that “women with some college had the highest abortion rate of any educational group.”

They also tout statistics that 71 percent of 18-19 year olds and 58 percent of 20-24 year olds said they had abortions because having the child would interfere with their education or career. Feminists for Life have been promoting the “Elizabeth Cady Stanton Pregnant and Parenting Student Services Act” to address these sad realities.

I would like to introduce a fresh approach to the abortion wars. I like to say there is a right to thrive that encompasses the right to life and it addresses the fact that we have a societal obligation to all children.

When I hear fellow pro-lifers rage against social programs and government’s role in ensuring the common good, I cringe. When I hear fellow Democrats rage against traditionally religious folk who are trying to take responsibility to stop the killing of unborn human lives, I want to weep.

When I want to make the pro-life case to my students in the classroom, I don’t show shocking pictures of aborted fetuses. I show the National Geographic documentary “In the Womb.”

It is my belief the unborn will win their human rights when everyone opens their eyes to the fact that every human life passes through the same stages.

Pro-life must also be whole-life. For me economics, war, immigration, health care and education are all life issues, and children and pregnant mothers take priority over the rest of us.

Shipe is a teacher at Melbourne Central Catholic High School and serves on the board of advisors of Florida Democrats for Life.

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20090125/COLUMNISTS0205/90123037/1138/OPINION