Text 9119, 82 rader
Skriven 2005-02-14 13:27:44 av Alan Hess
Ärende: pro-birth, not pro-life?
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-op.tucker14feb14,1,2953879.story?
coll=bal-pe-opinion
After they're born, compassion ends


By Cynthia Tucker

February 14, 2005

ATLANTA - At least Sonny Perdue, Georgia's Republican governor, practices what
he preaches. A conservative Christian and an opponent of abortion, Mr. Perdue
and his wife have matched word with deed over the years by volunteering as
foster parents who take care of abused or abandoned infants.

But there isn't much of that going around. There has long been an odd cognitive
dissonance in the anti-abortion movement, a strange disconnect of values. Many
family-values-loving conservative Christians are staunchly opposed to programs
that would help poor children get health care or day care or decent housing. It
is as if they adore the child still inside the womb, but despise him as soon as
he comes screaming into the world.

With the re-election of President Bush, many conservative Christians believe
they are close to their goal of overturning Roe vs. Wade. And in GOP-dominated
legislatures across the country, there is a renewed zeal to roll back
reproductive freedoms. In Georgia, GOP legislators have introduced a repugnant
bill that not only would require a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking an
abortion, but also would require medical personnel to give women scientifically
dubious information - that abortions increase the risk of breast cancer.

But the same Georgia Legislature, facing budget constraints, is also busy
cutting or squeezing programs that would help a poor mother to raise her child
if she decides against abortion.

One example is the state's landmark PeachCare program, which provides health
care to children of the working poor. Although the waiting list is long, Mr.
Perdue himself has proposed curbing growth in the program.

Mr. Bush, who says he "values life," exhibits a similar cognitive dissonance.
Though he is expected to appoint Supreme Court justices committed to
overturning abortion, his new budget takes a sharp ax to programs that would
help poor children - including public housing programs and public health.

Few of the nation's best-known evangelical Christians emphasize social justice
for the poor. That makes self-proclaimed "progressive evangelical" Jim Wallis,
editor of Sojourners magazine, stand out.

In a recent critique of Mr. Bush's budget proposals, he noted that the "cost of
deficit reduction is mostly borne by those least able to bear the burden - the
lowest-income families in America - rather than by those most able to afford
it."

But many conservatives would dismiss Mr. Wallis' argument as "class warfare."

Five years ago, political scientist Jean Reith Schroedel, a professor at
Claremont Graduate University, published a book - Is the Fetus a Person? - that
examined state policies throughout the country, comparing their restrictions on
abortion with their support for poor children. She found that the states that
imposed the most restrictions on access to abortion were also those that put
the least money into health care or day care or housing aid for poor children.

"Pro-life states are less likely than pro-choice states to provide adequate
care to poor and needy children. Their concern for the weak and vulnerable
appears to stop at birth," she wrote.

So if conservative Christians are going to insist on lecturing pregnant women
before they get access to abortion - frightening them with grim tales of future
emotional distress - they should also counsel them on the realities of raising
a child with few financial resources.

The brochure might read something like this: "If you are poor and you keep this
child, you won't have the money for decent day care. You'll have to choose
between paying the electric bill and buying antibiotics for your child's ear
infection. And don't even think about opening a savings account to pay for his
college education."

Cynthia Tucker is editorial page editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Her column appears Mondays in The Sun.

Copyright + 2005, The Baltimore Sun

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