preaching to the choir

At long last a Planned Parenthood office opened up in this town and it's wedged between a tattoo joint and a boutique that sells chain-link necklaces and torn t-shirts.  Bright yellow signs began appearing in church rectory yards announcing the devil had come to town.  I had left my pew during a family wedding and was waiting in the vestibule for the sermon to be over. This overly zealous priest was droning on and on about Adam missing a rib and then suddenly Eve was on the scene and why are we still selling this crap to young women, it's demeaning.  I was shuffling through the pamphlets and then I saw it, a sign-up sheet for protesters in front of the Planned Parenthood office. The local Right to Life chapter would provide the signs showing bloody fetuses with proclamations like PLANNED PARENTHOOD MURDERS CHILDREN. I can't think of a national movement that scares me more than these guys except maybe the National Rifle Association.

I am not an advocate of abortion.  When I became aware of each of my three pregnancies my imagination was already watching that child's college graduation. A little cluster of cells? - no, an upright human being at my supper table, yes. But it's none of my business what decisions a woman makes about her own body and Big Brother governing agencies need to look elsewhere to meddle.  I have a problem with men carrying those anti-abortion signs, well, I do. 

Government should exist for a minimal amount of reasons.  They need to protect us from the creepy unshaven guys wandering our neighborhoods and the madmen across the ocean with their  terrorist ideologies. And justice, the system needs to be swift and honest and we're still working on that one. All the rest should be handled by the citizens at large.
Abortion is a deeply personal affair and  the majority of women who show up for this procedure are unresourceful and uninformed and in some cases, just plain dumb.  These unfortunates need our compassion, not our judgmental displeasure and they need a program that teaches not patronizes. If only it were that simple.