Friday, April 30, 2010
The role played by Kansas in the national debate over abortion changed dramatically when Dr. George Tiller was murdered last year. Tiller’s Wichita clinic was already a major point of contention, and a frequent object of derision for out-of-state anti-abortion groups such as Operation Rescue. After the shock of Tiller’s death began to subside, the discussion about what his legacy would be began to take shape.
The clinic is yet to reopen, and there have been attempts to make the closure permanent.
Recently, a sweeping ban on late-term abortion was vetoed by Governor Parkinson. However, this is likely not to be the last attempt at such a ban — especially if Sam Brownback is elected Governor later this year. Even if such a ban is to pass, it will not be without a protracted fight.
Abortion is the great wedge issue in modern politics. The wrong perspective on abortion rights can completely derail a political candidate’s aspirations. Debate can even turn people against non-partisan figures, such as Supreme Court justices.
I was annoyed, but not really surprised, when it played such a prominent part in the health care reform debate that monopolized pretty much all political goings-on for about a year. Some right-leaning Democrats (or, more likely, ones in conservatives districts concerned with keeping their seats) refused to support that legislation without an assurance from DNC leadership that funds allocated from it would not specifically go towards abortion funding.
We seem to only take the lead on major political issues in Kansas when it has the potential to really embarrass us. The 1990s saw our noble Sunflower State in the national political spotlight for two things: a Republican candidate for President who developed an affection for a certain little blue pill and for local (and briefly successful) attempts at banning evolutionary theory from high school science classes.
Just a few years ago, Kansas House Republicans decided that having the opportunity to make Kansas a leader in clean, renewable energy (what with our having one of the best wind potentials in the country) wasn’t nearly as sexy as having another smog-spewing coal plant out in western Kansas.
Tiller’s clinic brought the state another kind of attention that, similar to the examples of attention we seem to accumulate, had its downsides. Although pro-choice Kansans could boast that one of the few clinics in the country willing to perform late-term abortions existed in Wichita, it also frequently brought in anti-abortion activists who otherwise would have mostly left Kansas alone.
If you’ve ever experienced the kinds of demonstrations those people are known for, and it’s happened on campus a few times, you probably understand where I’m coming from.
As it stands, there is the possibility for Tiller’s clinic to be reopened. I hope that possibility will remain even if Sam Brownback ends up our next Governor.
Most of the backwards steps our state has taken have been admittedly small, if still embarrassing. But, although I’d be happy losing the clinic protestors, it’d be nice for us to garner a little attention for being open minded for once.
— Cohen is a senior from Topeka in political science.
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Comments
Cohen: Let's make Kansas proud
While Doctor Tiller's death is a tragedy, I fail to see how reopening a late term abortion clinic is all that "open minded". Even in liberal circles, late term abortion is viewed with some distaste. This seems an awful lot like fighting for the right of people to hang Confederate flags up in front of their courthouse - sure, it's freedom, but is it a freedom that we can go to sleep at night knowing we endorse?
Cohen: Let's make Kansas proud
At least people displaying Confederate flags aren't killing anyone.
Cohen: Let's make Kansas proud
Do Kansas proud??? What is boastful or inspiring about the right to an abortion? Abortion is the unfortunate, degrading, last ditch option when all other avenues have failed. What exactly is prideful about the gruesome inhumanity of late term abortions? Abortion literally takes our greatest resource, a human life (use the phrase, "potential human life" if you do not posses the moral courage to acknowledge what is really taking place) and reduces it to a lifeless lump of decaying tissue. By choice. And you really want to defend that? As a Lutheran, i find no joy in the murder of Dr. Tiller, but I absolutely shed no tears either. His actions were unconsionable.
Cohen: Let's make Kansas proud
Kujayhawk, what is the difference between a 2 month old fetus and a 7 month old fetus that makes the killing of one appropriate and the other disgusting?
Cohen: Let's make Kansas proud
"Some right-leaning Democrats (or, more likely, ones in conservatives districts concerned with keeping their seats) refused to support that legislation without an assurance from DNC leadership that funds allocated from it would not specifically go towards abortion funding."
Suggesting that conservative democrats don't or can't have legitimate objections to abortion shows how far on the fringe Cohen is. Perhaps the liberal opposite of those guys with the confederate flags.
Cohen: Let's make Kansas proud
As a person on the fringe, I can definitely say that Cohen is not over here with me. He's pointing out that abortion is a wedge issue, which it is. The problem with abortion is that the politics of it has nothing to do with daily lives. People with a priori religious and ideological stances prevent rational debate and demonize opposing viewpoints.
And let's keep in mind that the people with less access to birth control tend to be poor and undereducated. And of course, this is always a woman's problem, because it's hard to run from your baby when it's in your belly. So we can yell and scream about abortion, but often we're ignoring the realities of poverty and the oppression of women.
And what exactly is the liberal opposite of Confederate flag wavers? An anti-racist? Sounds good to me.
Cohen: Let's make Kansas proud
the liberal opposite of the confederate flag is the HAMMER SICKLE! WE ARE ALL COMRADES! TO EACH ACCORDING TO HIS NEED, FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS ABILITY!
Cohen: Let's make Kansas proud
Yet again, people fail to understand what a "late-term abortion" actually IS. Women don't just go through 7 months of pregnancy, wake up one day, and then say, "You know what? I don't want to have a child anymore. Off to the abortion clinic!"
This common idea is ignorant, misguided, and insulting to the intelligence and agency of women. Those who receive late-term abortions are women whose pregnancies go terribly, tragically wrong.
Please, get your facts straight before you go moralizing about the choices women have to face, especially if you're a man and therefore will never have to make that choice.
Great commentary, Ben.
Cohen: Let's make Kansas proud
Please point me to some facts about why women chose late term abortions. I along with many (if not most) opponents of abortion, at any stage, firmly believe that a threat to the health of the mother should not prohibit abortion. Are there other tragic consequences of abortion I'm missing? More tragic than the termination of a life?
I wouldn't want to deny the magnitude of this type of decision for anyone. As a guy, I agree it's impossible for me to empathize. However, my gender does not leave me incapable of determining right and wrong.
Cohen: Let's make Kansas proud
Glad you seem to know so much about me.
It's convenient not to have a child when you don't have access to great resources. However, many people make difficult choices every day and raise children as single parents in difficult situations. Poverty is not a tragic situation. Millions and millions of people all over the world live in poverty and are able to do it without taking their life or another's. Escaping poverty isn't worth taking a life.
Are you saying that we shouldn't attempt to save any lives if we can't save them all? That's not very productive logic. I guess we should stop all charity work and institutional assistance of any kind.
You are using relativistic thinking to justify actions that everyone can agree are not correct. Even you admitted it's a tragic situation. Why make it worse?
Cohen: Let's make Kansas proud
Poverty isn't good. Death is worse. Even someone with no education and not a dime to his name can tell you that.
Cohen: Let's make Kansas proud
Ever read stories about doctors hearing the baby crying during late term abortions? If the baby doesn't know it's alive, it sure knows its dieing.
You don't have to travel to find poor people. I've met people struggling to make ends meet as single parents with multiple children right here.
Your argument here is entirely conclusion based. It seems you have this belief but no basis for why you believe in it.
Cohen: Let's make Kansas proud
I'd keep this up, but your reasoning isn't worth debating anymore.
I'm not advocating poverty or raising children in poverty. I'm advocating that we not kill children simply because that might be a problem for some percentage of them. To do so would be to advocate that we euthanize people who live in poverty. If there is no reason to force a child to live through poverty, why are we forcing others to live through it?
Also, let's not pretend that the motivation to abort a child is compassion.
Cohen: Let's make Kansas proud
So what IS the motivation?
Cohen: Let's make Kansas proud
I think the problem with the current political situation is that no party is TRULY anti-abortion. If the Republicans truly believed that life is sacred, they'd shore up the funds that take care of adoption agencies, public healthcare, sex education, and other social welfare. In reality, their pro-life stance is more another punitive position that hopes that condescension will stand in for actual action. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party feels it necessary to cater to revisionist of feminine ideology who argue abortion is pro-suffragette - Susan B Anthony's stance on the concept be damned. As long as America refuses to acknowledge that not only does a child need to be born, but that it needs to be cared for, this country will continue to exist in the quandary it's currently in - an artificially created moral gray area when we all know full well what to do.
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