Sheep Alert

I’ve decided to give up the subtle innuendo with the sheep pictures. I’m going to come right out and call it Sheep Alert when I see examples of the manipulation of simple minded voters. We should know better and be ashamed of ourselves when we fall for this crap.

Last week, the Missouri House approved HB 1831 on a 113-33 third reading vote and sent the measure to the Senate for its consideration. The bill was to make forced abortions illegal.

No one is lurking on dark street corners ready to pounce on pregnant women and force them to have an abortion.

I have actually lost close friends over this issue. My view is there is no black and white about abortion. There are shades of gray. The first trimester of pregnancy the fetus has no sense of pain of self awareness. The more viable the fetus becomes, the more aware. What a woman decides about her body is none of my damn business.

I drive by Planned Parenthood on Forest Park Ave. every day. There are protesters with signs. There’s always someone down on their knees praying for the unborn. I think it’s great that people who care about anything are out there making their beliefs known. I feel sorry for them though.

Their idea of a human soul is completely misguided and shouldn’t be imposed on the rest of us. Those of us that believe in reason are going to have to have the courage to speak up. We are living in a superstitious society. The convictions of these folks get us into wars. The suffering we impose on each other usually has some kind of moral conviction at its base.

When my son was 4 we were at a church event at my wife’s parish. A woman was trying to raise money for a protest group to go down to Florida. I told her I believed it was a woman’s right to choose what she does with her body. She looked at my son and said, “It’s a good thing for you, your dad didn’t have you aborted.”

When a personality has developed it’s hard to imagine a state of consciousness that came before. By this logic the loss of every egg and sperm is a tragedy.

Planned Parenthood wants to educate everyone about contraception. They want pregnancy to be on purpose. They don’t advocate abortion. No one does.

Last week the Pope said contraception exacerbates the problem of unwanted pregnancy. He believes condoms promote teen sex. We have to wake up.