Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Compassion is the middle ground…

Often in the din of the abortion debate the voices of women are lost. Often the shouting between sides on many reproductive justice issues overshadows the issues themselves.
In the recent presidential debate Senator Obama mentioned finding a middle ground in the abortion debate. I think that the middle ground doesn’t need to be found, it already exists. The middle ground is about compassion. As the religious and ethical voice for reproductive justice, Faith Aloud believes that compassion is central to all conversations about reproductive justice. We believe that all people deserve compassion no matter what choices they are making and they need compassion in their decision making process. For most people compassion is hard to argue with. Choosing to end a pregnancy can be compassionate just like choosing to carry a pregnancy to term can be compassionate; being abstinent can be compassionate just like talking frankly about sexuality can be compassionate. Voting can be about compassion. Compassion can’t just be the middle ground of the abortion debate, or the gay marriage debate or any debate about reproductive justice—compassion has to be the foundation of these discussions.