Abortion and Politics: Why Government Should Keep It's Nose Out Of The Abortion Issue

To understand why I believe that government should have no official "legal or illegal" position on abortion requires that I explain briefly, what my personal beliefs on the subject of abortion are.


Simply put, my personal beliefs on the subject of abortion, by way of my own personal choice, are in harmony with those of the religious organization I belong to.  Now, saying just that much doesn't tell you where I stand, and you may be thinking that I'm trying to avoid answering my own question.

What I have said so far, by way of my answer, is that I have chosen to have and keep my personal beliefs on abortion in line with those of my religion.  Why should that be important to you?  Why should that be enough of an answer for you?  Because of an important part of our U.S. Constitution.

At this point, you may be trying to tell yourself that there is nothing about abortion in the U.S. Constitution.  Well, to that I must say both yes and no.  Yes, there is no mention of the word or subject of abortion in the U.S. Constitution.  And No, the subject of abortion, and the government's position on it is covered under part of the First Amendment, which starts out saying:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or preventing the free exercise there of;..."

Allow me to share a personal experience to help tie this part of the First Amendment into the subject of abortion and politics.

Some few years ago, for reasons unrelated to the subject of this opinion article, I was motivated to do some research in the EEOC website. (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).

While performing that research, I found that our system of laws, as they relate to non-discrimination in the work place, require that employers be willing to provide "reasonable accommodation" to the sincerely held religious beliefs of employees.  What I also found very interesting was the requirement that employers must be prepared to provide the same degree of "reasonable accommodation" to their employees who had genuine sincerely held beliefs but who were atheists, meaning, they weren't part of any organized system of religious beliefs.

I actually found this requirement of the law to be very comfortable and in harmony with my understanding of some important events that led up to the founding of the United States of America.  What do I mean by that?

When certain religious groups immigrated to what was then known as the "New World," an important part of their motivation was to get away from a part of Great Britain and Europe where, speaking only of that day and time, the Church of England had been given broad power to force everyone to join and swear allegiance to the beliefs of that Church.  Those who dared to disobey had a variety of "punishments" administered upon them.

Well, among those who were being forced to submit to the legal demands of the Church of England were those who were atheists.  So, it would have been a rather simple matter for them to pretend to share the beliefs of whatever religious groups where immigrating to the New World so that they could move to a place where they would have the freedom to not believe in God.

While I, personally, disagree with their decision, I must respect it.  And so, finding what I considered to be a point of "legal precedent" in the EEOC website for treating the sincerely held beliefs of the religiously motivated and of atheists alike was very agreeable to me.


Thank you for taking time to read and ponder my opinion on this topic.
An Opinion Article by Dave Kemper
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It has been said that: "One definition of insanity is to do the same thing, the same way, over and over and over again, each time expecting to achieve a different result."
Therefore, we must either CHANGE the way we live, or we bind our future to our past as if with CHAINS.
"I do not consider myself to be better than anyone else.  But I do believe in exercising my right to not stay stupid."

David W. Kemper, Author
© Copyright 2014 by David William Kemper.  All right reserved
No part or portion of this publication may be modified in any manner without the express written permission of the author.  Quoting from this publication is allowed on condition that the name of the author and the name of the publication are included.