What is an abortion?

It’s good to start with a definition.  Abortion is a procedure intended to end the life of an unborn child.  Note the absence of the word “medical.”  This is intentional, as abortion intentionally kills another human being, and medical procedures are intended to heal, not to harm.

The Value of Human Life

The American Solidarity Party  believes that every human being, regardless of age, ability, income, social status, behavior, or appearance has an inherent dignity, and therefore all humans are equally valuable and equally deserving of consideration.  Furthermore, you were once an unborn child, as was everyone else.  Didn’t you want to live back then?

Where I Stand

I stand with my party in stating that life is a universal good, and that all human beings deserve protection from harm.  So I cannot abide by a procedure that intentionally kills an innocent human being.

 

Our nation has come a long way in defending the rights of various groups over its 250-year history.  We outlaw discrimination based on sex, race, class, or religion. Yet we discriminate with prejudice against people based on their birth status to the point of death.  No other group of Americans could withstand such an assault without crying loudly for justice.  But this group can’t cry yet, they don’t have names, and some of them have yet to develop their facial features or even their bodily organs.  And yet they are human, just like you and me.  But somehow they’re different?

 

None of this is to say that an unborn child’s life must be preserved at any cost.  There are situations, displayed prominently in the news, where it is not possible to save the lives of both the mother and child.  In these cases it is morally acceptable for a doctor to perform a medical procedure to save the mother’s life even if it is very likely that the child will not survive.  In this case the child’s death is foreseeable but not intentional (the Principle of Double Effect).  This is NOT an abortion as defined above.  Keep in mind, however, that these cases are a tiny fraction of the 900,000 abortions performed every year in America (cf. Guttmacher).

Where the Major Parties Stand

Planned Parenthood is to the Democrats what the National Rifle Association has traditionally been to Republicans: an industry that cannot be crossed except on pain of political death.  The Democrats’ continued refusal to see that unborn children on the losing end of a 2-1 vote is fundamentally unjust is tragic.  It leads to a culture of death.

 

Meanwhile, since the Dobbs decision, Republicans have hurried to scrub any mention of abortion off their websites.  Rather than stand up for what they claimed to believe in, they are now like the dog that caught the car and doesn’t know what to do next.  Yes, the results of state referendums are not going their way; but that’s no reason to abandon a principle, unless it never was one to begin with.

Policy Specifics

The inalienable right to life must be formally acknowledged by all levels of government. In the interim, our federal, state, and local governments must end taxpayer funding of organizations that provide, promote, or facilitate abortions, as well as health care plans that include abortion coverage. I oppose any procedures which cause the intentional destruction of human embryos.

 

Every level of government must meet the needs of vulnerable women and children and directly address the scandalously high maternal mortality rate. Government must fund, rather than harass, pregnancy care centers and other organizations that provide prenatal care and maternal support.

 

I support adoption as an alternative to abortion for women who do not want to raise a child.  Although there are waiting lists to adopt young children, tax incentives should be given to those families who adopt disabled or older children.