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What Obama Should Have Said
What did you think of President Obama's commencement speech Sunday at Notre Dame? How will the Notre Dame controversy change the abortion debate in America?
There are two real-life cases of abortion that have shaped my judgment on the practice.
One is that my father's mother had already birthed five young boys when she became pregnant again in 1914. She hoped to be able to concentrate her energy on raising those five instead of birthing more. Because abortions were illegal, she had a "back-alley" abortion - and it killed her. So she was unable to raise any of them. Her early death cast a shadow over my father's life till his own dying day.
The second is that one of my friends and teachers, an eminent rabbi, was the child of a mother who fled Vienna after Hitler annexed Austria. His mother was pregnant again when the family needed to leave, and they knew that the underground "railroad" to freedom was bound to be too arduous for a pregnant woman. The choices were: staying in Austria to die together; leaving her behind to die alone; or aborting the fetus. She had an abortion. Today my rabbi friend says they thought then and ever since that she had given birth to the whole family.
I wish the President had said explicitly what these stories teach me: that women are moral beings, possessed of moral agency and responsibility in this unique situation where their own bodies are intertwined with another's; that the lives of women would be endangered once again if abortion were criminalized again; and that to prevent unwanted pregnancies, the U.S. government should subsidize comprehensive sex education and the provision of free condoms and other contraceptives in all American high schools and should require health insurance companies to cover the cost of abortion.
By
Arthur Waskow
|
May 19, 2009; 10:57 AM ET
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Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | May 21, 2009 9:45 AM
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R. Waskow,
It is not that I do not agree, and agree strongly, with every word you write, but that I think we must bear in mind that Obama was not invited to Notre Dame to speak on choice. He was invited to deliver the commencement address to the gradutates of 2009.
His speech was excellent. If one listens carefully, one hears some subtle thinking beyond the obvious seek common ground, bearing in mind you will never agree Obama quasi mantra.
It was a fine address, fit both for the ceremony and the something else others tried to make of it.