Peter Schmitt's Argument Against Abortion
"I have pro-abortion people calling concerned that pro-life people are being funded, and pro-life people calling concerned that pro-abortion people are being funded. You can’t be on both sides of the issue,” said Nassau County Legislator Peter Schmitt in a recent New York Times article, adding, “Leadership is not pandering on both sides of a contentious issue.”
Schmitt was referring to a proposal made by County Executive Tom Suozzi to use tax dollars to reduce the number of abortions in Nassau County over the next three years. The money would go to adoption services, housing services for single pregnant women, sex education and the like. As an adopted child instead of an aborted one, I agree with Schmitt -- a leader can¹t be on both sides of an issue simultaneously. But not everything is black and white when it comes to something as important …show more content…
as a human life. This is an issue where the gray area is the perfect place for a leader to stand.
Will anyone, even those who have had an abortion, even those who perform them, say, “Hey, I love abortion!
I’m pro-abortion”? No, and that’s the common ground, the gray area.
Put most simply, pro-life is about preserving lives and pro-choice is about the right to choose. But if you put aside their huge agendas, the two sides share the desire for women to be educated. So here’s a quick education:
The Centers for Disease Control report that the number of abortions in the U.S. has decreased. In 1996, the CDC recorded 1,221,585 abortions. In 2000 that number dropped to 857,475, and a year later it decreased further, to 853,485.
In 1995, 1.6 million people looked into adoption, according to the National Survey of Family Growth. That’s more than one parent for every aborted child.
Adoption agencies and social workers exist to help make birth parents and adoptive parents comfortable with the placing of children. They actually want the best arrangement for all involved. There are a number of arrangements that can be made in which both biological and adoptive parents can walk away satisfied with their respective
decisions.
There is more to adoption than carrying a fetus for nine months, then giving a baby to strangers and not knowing his or her whereabouts from that point on. That is just one option called closed adoption in which a minimal amount of information about the biological parents is provided to the adoptive parents and vice versa. There is no contact between the two sets of parents throughout the adoption process.
On the other end of the spectrum is the open adoption, in which the birth mother, though she will not be raising the child, is a part of the child¹s life as a non-relative. Sometimes it’s as a friend of the family, or perhaps a babysitter. Whatever she is called, it¹s not “Mom”, and this arrangement doesn’t give biological parents any rights to the child, but rather a window into his or her life.
Open and closed adoptions are the extremes, and in between them is the semi-open adoption, in which the adoptive and biological parents interact. They may talk on the phone, exchange letters or visit with each other. Semi-open adoptions can sometimes continue past the birth, with updates about the child provided to the biological parents.
Middle ground. Common cause. Gray area. Call it what you want, but a true leader listens to both sides of a contentious issue and is smart enough to find the common ground and do what is best for people, not agendas.
Schmitt was referring to a proposal made by County Executive Tom Suozzi to use tax dollars to reduce the number of abortions in Nassau County over the next three years. The money would go to adoption services, housing services for single pregnant women, sex education and the like. As an adopted child instead of an aborted one, I agree with Schmitt -- a leader can¹t be on both sides of an issue simultaneously. But not everything is black and white when it comes to something as important …show more content…
as a human life. This is an issue where the gray area is the perfect place for a leader to stand.
Will anyone, even those who have had an abortion, even those who perform them, say, “Hey, I love abortion!
I’m pro-abortion”? No, and that’s the common ground, the gray area.
Put most simply, pro-life is about preserving lives and pro-choice is about the right to choose. But if you put aside their huge agendas, the two sides share the desire for women to be educated. So here’s a quick education:
The Centers for Disease Control report that the number of abortions in the U.S. has decreased. In 1996, the CDC recorded 1,221,585 abortions. In 2000 that number dropped to 857,475, and a year later it decreased further, to 853,485.
In 1995, 1.6 million people looked into adoption, according to the National Survey of Family Growth. That’s more than one parent for every aborted child.
Adoption agencies and social workers exist to help make birth parents and adoptive parents comfortable with the placing of children. They actually want the best arrangement for all involved. There are a number of arrangements that can be made in which both biological and adoptive parents can walk away satisfied with their respective
decisions.
There is more to adoption than carrying a fetus for nine months, then giving a baby to strangers and not knowing his or her whereabouts from that point on. That is just one option called closed adoption in which a minimal amount of information about the biological parents is provided to the adoptive parents and vice versa. There is no contact between the two sets of parents throughout the adoption process.
On the other end of the spectrum is the open adoption, in which the birth mother, though she will not be raising the child, is a part of the child¹s life as a non-relative. Sometimes it’s as a friend of the family, or perhaps a babysitter. Whatever she is called, it¹s not “Mom”, and this arrangement doesn’t give biological parents any rights to the child, but rather a window into his or her life.
Open and closed adoptions are the extremes, and in between them is the semi-open adoption, in which the adoptive and biological parents interact. They may talk on the phone, exchange letters or visit with each other. Semi-open adoptions can sometimes continue past the birth, with updates about the child provided to the biological parents.
Middle ground. Common cause. Gray area. Call it what you want, but a true leader listens to both sides of a contentious issue and is smart enough to find the common ground and do what is best for people, not agendas.