Politics

As some of you may know, I am not one who usually goes about declaring my political views to the world. I believe that everyone has the right to their own opinion, and that each of us also has a responsibility to educate ourselves about issues when we have the opportunity to vote. But this year when people in California were voting on Proposition 8, it became clear to me that when there is such an important issue being voted on, then we also have a responsibility to educate ourselves about the issue and to help educate others. When I was visiting my family in San Diego this fall, my mom was involved with helping to visit and call people in her neighborhood to explain to them what Prop 8 was all about (and many people who she spoke to weren’t even clear on what a “Yes” or a “No” vote actually meant). When I first heard about people from church contacting people to talk to them about Prop 8, I have to admit that I thought that would be a difficult thing to do – I can be rather shy about speaking to people anyways, especially about such a disputed topic. But after watching several video clips and reading some articles about Prop 8, I realized how important it was to not just stand by and let a minority make decisions for the majority. After all of the video clips showing families in Massachusetts (where they had previously passed laws allowing same-sex marriage) where the parents were not allowed to be notified by the schools before their young children were taught about homosexual relationships – students were taught not only to embrace homosexuality in others, but the students themselves were encouraged to experiment with both heterosexuality and homosexuality before deciding what worked best for them – I thought of my little boys, and how difficult it would be to have my family placed in that kind of a situation. It is hard enough today to teach our children about having strong values and living the gospel with all of the misinformation that they receive from the media and other sources, but to have their school teachers who the children admire and look to as role models teaching them opposite principles than what we are trying to teach them would make our job as parents even more difficult.

And, although there were similar propositions being voted upon in several states during that election, California’s Proposition 8 was the one that everyone seemed to be focusing on, because many states seem to eventually follow the trends of California within a few years. Plus, as you probably know, I grew up in California and have always wanted to move back to Southern California again after all of Michael’s medical training so that we could be near family and enjoy the beautiful weather there. So the vote on Prop 8 was more than just a curiosity to me – it was personal: deciding what could be taught to my children in the public schools in the state where I’d like to move back to. Anyways, when the election was going on and all of the votes were being counted, I admit that I was more interested in the turnout of California’s Prop 8 than in even the presidential election (after all, I felt that both of the presidential candidates had both positives and negatives and I had a hard time deciding which one to vote for – I am still curious to see the outcome of the presidential election with the candidate that was chosen – but I knew exactly what I wanted the outcome of the Prop 8 vote to be). Since the local news stations were only covering the Presidential election and a few minor local issues (like whether the tax-payers were going to pay extra to fix up the zoo or not), I went online and found an official website with information for California that was updated as the votes were counted. I followed that site through the next day, until it was clear what the people of California had decided: that marriage was defined as between one man and one woman. I was so relieved. I thought about writing a post on the blog about it at that time, but never got around to it after the fact. But I got an e-mail from a friend that reminded me of Prop 8 and all my feelings about that.

The e-mail was about Obama’s plans to sign the Freedom of Choice Act as soon as he becomes president, and links to a website with a form that you can fill out petitioning him not to do so. Although I am usually pretty critical of forwarded e-mails, and I also do not know if online petitions have any real effect on political issues, this is another issue that I think is incredibly important. I took a look at the website for the petition, http://www.fightfoca.com/, and it shows a short video clip of Obama clearly stating that he plans to support this act. Among other things, the Freedom of Choice Act will allow various types of abortions, including partial birth abortions. I was watching tv once a few years ago and I flipped the channel to see a partial birth abortion, and it just made me cry. First of all, I think that although I personally don’t know if I could ever have an abortion in any situation, there are a few situations where it might be considered, such as cases of rape or if the mother and baby would surely die if she were to give birth, but in most cases I think abortion is a terrible thing and should never be considered. I think that people who are irresponsible and have sex without thinking about the consequences, and then decide that abortion is a good fix for their problem will be held responsible for their actions after this life. I think that stopping the life of an innocent baby is such a terrible thing to do, and I imagine that the majority of women who make the decision to do so, especially teenagers, regret their decision later on. I also think that a child deserves to be raised by a mother and a father in a good home, and I know that there are good parents out there looking to adopt children. How could any person be so selfish as to end the life of another human being just because it would be difficult for her for 9 months of her life? I know, being sick and having changes to your body are not fun, and the social pressures may be difficult to deal with, but if you chose to have sex in the first place, you knew that pregnancy was a possible result of that action. Why not just have the baby and give it up for adoption?

And why would anyone ever have a partial birth abortion? As I understand it, these abortions are done late enough that the baby could possibly be born and survive, but instead they are partially born and then killed. How could any woman, medical professional, or politician ever think that such a thing should be allowable?

The other part of the Freedom of Choice Act that really bothered me was the fact that doctors would be forced to perform abortions against their will. When Michael went through medical school, he told me that as a doctor they are obligated to refer a patient to a different doctor who will help them with an abortion if they are morally opposed to performing one. Why change this? If the patient will be referred to another doctor who will give them information about their options and give them the care they need, why force all doctors to perform abortions? I’m just glad that Michael is going into dermatology, so if this act does get passed it shouldn’t affect him professionally.

Anyways, I don't know if signing the petition on this website will have any effect on Obama's decision to go forward with signing the Freedom of Choice Act, but at least we can try to get the message out to people about his plans to do so, and hopefully the more people who learn about this, the more people there will be who will let their opinions be known that we as the majority of the American population do not support such actions.

http://www.fightfoca.com/