Patently Unfair(To Say the Least)

I'm acquainted with SC state Senator Mike Fair. He attended the church I once attended in Greenville, SC. I ate in his home, when he and his family were kind enough to host our college group there.

Mr. Fair recently introduced this bill in the South Carolina Legislation. In reaction to complaints about state-funded license plates reading "Choose Life," which have no pro-choice counterpart, Fair offered the bill, which states the following:

THE DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES SHALL ISSUE "CHOOSE DEATH" SPECIAL LICENSE PLATES AND TO PROVIDE FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF FEES COLLECTED FOR THESE SPECIAL LICENSE PLATES TO THE SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH TO USE FOR COUNSELING POST ABORTION TRAUMA IN FEMALES WHO HAVE HAD ABORTIONS.

I'm somewhat hesitant to describe myself as pro-choice, but I think abortion is a complicated shades-of-gray issue which some conservatives try to paint as black and white. However, given only the choices of pro-abortion, pro-choice and pro-life--and all three terms being heavily freighted with rhetoric--I'd have to describe myself as pro-choice. With that admission, I don't know how to describe Fair's action in any other way than repugnant. Repellant. Morally indefensible.

This is what far-right conservatives in South Carolina offer in the way of dialogue over abortion? One license which at least politely suggests "Choose Life" and another which actively shames those who have had abortions? Mr. Fair's reaction to the declared unconstitutionality of the state's one-sided license plate is to create two one-sided license plates, including a revolting and oppressive one?

The debate over abortion is a serious one and for good reason. And both sides have serious points which deserve to be heard. But Mike Fair refuses to treat the issue seriously. As Planned Parenthood says in the press release I received:

Not only is this bill a pathetic attempt to stigmatize those of us who understand the importance of safe, legal and accessible abortion as being "pro-death," it is also a slap in the face to women who have undergone abortions.

Mr. Fair's bill combines flippancy, vulgarity, and sheer contempt for other human beings in a way I've never seen present in legislature before. At best, his bill is a waste of the SC Legislation's time and lacking in any moral seriousness. At worst, it's a vicious and cruel-hearted attack on woman who have had to wrestle with something he will never have to.

I would ask Mr. Fair to imagine himself in the place of a father whose 12-year old daughter has been raped. Full of fear and shame, the daughter takes two weeks to tell her parents about her horrible ordeal. The family soon discovers their pre-teen daughter was impregnated by her attacker. Mr. Fair, what would you do? Would you have your daughter carry her child to term? Become a mother at 12? Allow the rest of her life to be changed because of the actions of one wicked man? Or should she carry her child to term and put it up for adoption? What will she do during those months? Should her parents send her away for nine months until the baby is born as they would have decades ago? Or should she stay at home, perhaps never leaving the house, for fear of suffering the stares and disdain of people both familiar and strange? What if after wrestling with the decision for days, even weeks, in a state of agony, which a man cannot begin to understand, the girl decides to abort the fetus and to try, somehow, to move on with her life? In this case, Mr. Fair, would you suggest the father purchase a "Choose Death" license plate, knowing that part of his purchase would go to department of health, which could aid in his daughter's psychological recovery?

Of course, Mr. Fair isn't serious about this legislation. It's just a joke to him. A sick, cruel, monstrous joke.

Mr. Fair makes a big deal about his being a Christian and has close ties with Bob Jones University. Tell me Mr. Fair, in this case, what do you think Jesus would do?