True Courage On The View

First, if you haven't heard about the latest dust up on ABC's gabfest The View, watch this clip:

Here's the story from People Magazine:

The View co-host Sherri Shepherd is not "flippant" about abortion, she said Wednesday while addressing some controversial comments she gave to a magazine on the subject recently.

Shepherd, 41, told the Christian magazine Precious Times that she had undergone "more abortions than I can count" during her twenties. But the article, Shepherd said, did not tell the whole story.

"The full quote was I suffer from a lot of shame and guilt, and I didn't know how to forgive myself," said Shepherd, clarifying her comments in the current cover story.

In the publication, geared toward churchgoing black women, she credited her conversion to Christianity with saving her from a lifestyle of "sleeping with a lot of guys."

"This is something I went through," she explained during the opening segment of the talk show. "I like to inspire women who go through a lot of shame and guilt [because] I too went through it."

Shepherd's quotes in the magazine sparked a hubbub on the Internet this week, but she says, "I just wanted people to know I wasn't being flippant about abortions."

After appearing as a guest host, the former Less Than Perfect actress was hired as a regular by The View's co-creator Barbara Walters last September.

My jaw dropped as I was watching this.

Some data on abortions: There are OVER 1,000,000 (yes, MILLION) abortions performed in the U.S. every year (46 million worldwide). In the U.S., an estimated 43% of all women will have at least 1 abortion by the time they are 45 years old. 47% of all abortions are performed on women who have had at least one previous abortion. 48% of abortions are performed on women over 25 years old.

Why do I say "True Courage" in my headline? Now that you're aware of some statistics, how many women do you know, in public or private, that have admitted to having one (or more) abortions? I happen to know several in my personal life but this is the first public person I know that has put her entire life on the line. The fact that Sherri fessed up, probably fearing her job was/is on the line, took some major cojones.

To be clear, I'm celebrating her level of honesty and self revelation, not her abortion choices.

I'm glad that I'm a gay man and don't have to confront this issue for myself. That being said, I think that if it were me, if I had to have one abortion I wouldn't have another. If I can make it to Planned Parenthood to get an abortion, I can get there to get birth control pills. I realize that thinking is all based on my individual upbringing and environment but I think it's a reasonable standard to expect of others.

When it comes right down to it, I'm Pro Choice. I don't think that life begins at conception but I don't think it begins at birth either. I'm against abortion as birth control. Does Planned Parenthood offer birth control to patients that receive an abortion to prevent further procedures? I don't know.

What do I think of parental notification laws? Ask me when I have a teenage child; so I'll never really know.

That's all I got on this sensitive subject.

[I don't know if this post is going to generate a lot of comments or if everyone will hold back. If you do leave a comment, please be respectful to me, my readers, and other commenters. Thanks in advance.]