Thursday, November 18, 2010

Cynthia Davis: Nobody gets pregnant without a man

In the space of one glorious column, soon to be former Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O'Fallon, asserts the following:

-Women who get abortions after rape or incest are compared to prostitutes.

-There is an "irreversible, eternal, transcendental bond" between a woman and the man who gets her pregnant (based on the way this is written, it seems to indicate that includes a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest).

-Military women who get pregnant are compared to thieves, cheaters, and liars.

-Men won't get pregnant. (God bless them!)

-Nobody gets pregnant without a man.

Read for yourself:


What is the national government trying to spend our money on next? Abortion, which is always bad because somebody always dies. I saw a bumper sticker on a car that said something to the effect: “Abortion doesn’t erase the pregnancy; it only makes you the parent of a dead child”. Here is an article about congress pushing a proposal to allow our American-funded military hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan perform abortions on U.S. military women. Pentagon Bill to Include Abortion Amendment.


If we start with defining “abortion” as a health care bonus, we can understand why an anti-life congress would want to encourage military women to destroy their offspring. However, if we understand “abortion” as a mark of our failure to appropriately protect and care for women, then it is not health care at all. It becomes an act of degradation and abuse of humanity. Perhaps the crux of this issue is how we protect women. Surgically removing their offspring, even if they claim they want the abortion, is a mark of treating them like second class citizens, animals or chattel.

Unwanted pregnancies are not the problem; they are a symptom of another problem. Pregnancies don’t happen by accident. They happen by intentional acts between a man and a woman creating an irreversible, eternal, transcendental bond. You can’t separate the body from the soul. For every baby that was conceived, there is a mother and a father who joined their hearts and souls. Destroying the baby will never erase the act that created the baby.

Getting rid of the baby may end its life, but it never ends the fact that the baby existed. Offering abortions to our military will increase the pressure on women to destroy their unborn children and depreciate the value of women to being strictly utilitarian.

Even in the cases where people have argued that abortion is an appropriate reaction to the crimes committed women of rape and incest, remedying incest with abortions re-victimizes those women. Those who are ushered onto the operating table are made available for more abuse. The men who coerce women to abort their baby treat these women like sexual objects or prostitutes. Destroying the unborn will not correct the underlying problem and may actually exacerbate it.

The Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 134 states that adultery is punishable by court martial in all branches of the military. While this is not always enforced, it sends a clear message that adulterous behavior, especially when it results in a pregnancy, is always a violation of the Military Code. How can we run a well trained military organization without rules and consequential discipline? Ask any parent of young children how well that works when we start being inconsistent with behavioral expectations.

Elisabeth Bumiller a New York Times author said, “With no access to safe abortions outside the base, regulations require that a woman be flown home within two weeks of the time she finds out she’s pregnant, a particular stigma for unmarried women that ends any future career advancement.”

Rightfully so; why should we excuse people from the natural consequences of their chosen behavior? Career advancement ought to be curtailed if you were, for example, caught stealing, cheating or lying. Why? Because character is foundational to job performance.

The men deserve just as much hardship as the women. Nobody gets pregnant without a man. Punishing those who participate in these indiscretions may prove to be a deterrent. Some may ask, “What if women were to get pregnant just to go home?” We have a volunteer military anyway. Send them home. War zones are inappropriate places for pregnant women and children. The men left behind to fight are guaranteed to not get pregnant.

During the discussion about the Equal Rights Amendment some raised the question of whether the amendment would require women to serve in combat. It appears that without the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment most of the provisions have been accomplished already.

No comments: