Steinem and Divisiveness

Thanks to a family member for the article Gloria Steinem wrote for the LA Times about Sarah Palin. I had forgotten how grating Steinem can be. I guess she has Sarah down pat – she certainly is divisive, since she doesn’t agree with Steinem.

The reason the Republican platform is so different from the Democratic is that many people found themselves in a position where they could not vote for the party that left middle America and swept so far left.

There were many divisive elements in Steinem’s abrasive article, but her lowest blow is that Sarah (which would include me) wishes to control a woman’s womb. Not on your life – for me the issue is a matter of life, death, and financing.

Please let me try to explain in a secular manner.

A woman’s womb is her own, to invite or repel visitors without comment from others. But should a cellular combination occur, I believe the resultant occupant of a woman’s womb is human at conception. The DNA of the joined cellular structure is not that of the mother nor the father, but that of an individual. The occupant, if allowed to reach sufficient maturity, will be born human. If born in America, the occupant is a citizen from moment of birth. I believe that citizen’s protection should precede birth.

On a completely different level -- my religious beliefs tell me humans contain a soul. Because that soul cannot be detected, much less measured, I do not know when that soul begins or ends. I must assume its existence from conception, though much of that belief is based on scriptures unacceptable to many.

I do not wish to fund the deaths of millions of humans. I do not wish my tax money to do so. If reversal of the lie-based Roe v Wade deletes that funding, may it be so.

For that belief, Steinem would demonize me, those like me, and divide our nation. I regret she’s put me on the other side of a line she’s drawn. A line that goes beyond politics and is designed to denigrate religious beliefs.

But, that’s my point of view, and she’s entitled to her equally divisive one.