There has been a frenzy of discussion over the last few days regarding the issue of talk show host Chrissie Swan, being photographed smoking while pregnant. It was covered in the Sunday Papers, talk back radio has been a buzz with the debate and even on 2DayFM the issue is being discussed. And then of course there is Social Media.
Predictably the haters on Social Media has been so vile, so agressive, so personal in their attacks that Swan has had to delete her twitter account. Now I am no great fan of Swan and I am certainly not defending someone who smokes during pregnancy – but my observation is that the passion of this debate is sadly misplaced. People are up in arms, I assume, because they fear for the safety of the baby. An honourable enough endeavor. Yet are these the same people who say that a woman has the right to choose to abort her baby. If Swan was to come out this week and say that she has aborted her baby because of lifestyle choices, would there be the same uproar. Or would the masses suddenly fall silent, nodding approvingly and championing how enlightened we are as a society to give women the right to choose whether they carry a pregnancy to full term.
This post is not so much an anti abortion post as it is an observation on the passionate hypcrosity that has now infected our society. We passionately major on minors and then turn a blind eye to the things that we should be standing up for and not being silent on. M68.
Categories: Australian, Current Affairs
peterpilt 
Love it. Great observation!
Great observation.
There is also the thought in my mind that in our parents day most Mums did smoke during pregnancy, feeding, in the car etc due to “not knowing the science” and we presumably have turned out ok.
It is mostly us women that cause fear amongst other women instead of supporting our sisterhood, if its not smoking, its consuming a glass of wine or putting on too much weight or not nearly enough or even whether we breastfeed and for how long……..
Whilst it may not be the best for mum or baby is it the worst that can happen? After all I don’t think she is injecting drugs, or carrying on in some illegal, reckless fashion.
As a mum I would believe she would be trying to taper her addiction and wanting nothing but the best she can offer to her child/ren and giving herself enough worry each time she lights up!
is a cigarette or the stress to do with withdrawal worse for the unborn baby after all?
In an ideal world before we would conceive we would be in an ideal weight range, free of any chemicals, alcohol, nicotine, cholesterol, non organic food, gluten free, stress, free from employment etc etc but that is never really going to happen!!
Another opportunity for Christians to reach out with grace. That is our point of difference, and in fact, is what the gospel is all about. How we react and respond in these sorts of debates can either be life-giving or deflating depending on our response.
Food for thought.
Our society is so hypocritical. We condemn female genital mutilation and paedophilia because it hurts children, but yet defend the “rights” of parents to leave their families, leaving behind hurt children.