Some Personal Musings About Abortion

What follows is a personal reflection.

We recently passed the thirty-eighth year since Roe v. Wade made many, but not all, abortions legal in the United States. The decision of a deeply divided Supreme Court in the case has been amplified in the population, and has been the most contentious issue in American life ever since.

Of course, the controversy over abortion didn't begin in 1973. It was always there. By the early 70's, though, celebrity women were admitting that they had undergone illegal abortions at some time in life. Wealthy women could go abroad to end a pregnancy, as an Arizona woman did in 1962 when she learned the thalidomide she had taken could lead to severe physical damage to her fetus. Many many other desperate women went to doctors for illegal procedures or fell into the arms of unlicensed, often unqualified, abortionists.

My own thoughts about abortion have changed markedly through the years, first one way and then another. When the decision was first announced, I was against it. (One friend said I must be opposed because of my Catholic heritage, but I rejected that.) My reasoning was that we Americans had made much progress by 1973 in recognizing and protecting the rights of minorities, children, elderly people, and disabled persons, and we should also protect the not-yet-born. Whether that which is within the woman's body is called a baby, an embryo, or an undifferentiated mass of tissue, it is indisputably true that it will one day be born as a human being. So, like everyone else, it has an inherent right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

After a few years I began to believe that every woman has a right to control her own body. This seemed to me no less an inalienable right than the supposed rights of the organism growing inside her. Though I never went so far as to think the fertilized egg is similar to a tumor or cyst, I came to believe that what she decides in consultation with her doctor is all that counts.

Then after some more years passed, I thought it's really just glib for any man to tell a woman what she should do about an unwanted pregnancy. We men can't get pregnant, we don't go through morning sickness, get distended abdomens, become entirely uncomfortable as the pregnancy nears its end, or go through labor and delivery. Women need to sort out the matter of abortion, whether or not it should be legal, without male interference.

This doesn't seem satisfactory at all to me now. Men can no more wash their hands of the controversy than Pontius Pilate could wash his hands of Jesus. If a man believes abortion is morally reprehensible he must say so, must urge his opinion on others.

About two million abortions were performed legally in the USA last year. How many illegal abortions were performed before Roe v. Wade is unknown with any certainty, but there have been some pretty good guesses. Time magazine estimated in 1965 that between one and one and a half million were being done annually at that time. (Source: Time, September 17, 1965, as cited in "Nixonland" by Rick Perlstein, page 405.) The American population in 1965 was probably somewhere around 190 million people, whereas nowadays there are over 300 million of us. In other words, as a percentage of the population, the abortion frequency has risen somewhat, but not drastically. How many women and girls were maimed or killed by unqualified abortionists back then is also unknown, but now that abortions are mostly legal hardly anyone suffers significant physical damage from the procedure.

So where does all this leave me? (Or us.) Perhaps we can find some common ground with a couple of suppositions.

First of all, could we agree that ending a pregnancy through abortion should be a last resort, not something ever to be done without significant thought, consultation with trusted advisors and, if so inclined, prayer.

Second, and here comes the controversy, could we agree that once the woman has decided to end her pregnancy, at least in its early stages, the interest of the state is to protect her safety and wellbeing by assuring the abortion is performed by a qualified doctor? That is, legally.

Third, if we want to reduce the number of abortions, can we support comprehensive sex education curriculum for our children? Although the reasons for abortion are varied, certainly some of them result from an ignorance of human reproduction. Decisions about whether to have sex are not always rational, and knowledge of birth control methods would undoubtedly lower the number of women who want to end what a few minutes of passion produced. (I was a park ranger who patrolled the Colonial Parkway, a twenty-three mile long lover's lane on Friday and Saturday nights, and I know what I'm talking about.)

Fourth, if you think abortion is sinful, you have every right to protest, or persuade women to continue their pregnancies. You don't have a right to bomb abortion clinics, and absolutely don't have a right to kill abortionists. Not only is it immoral and criminal to do so, it's counter-productive.

Fifth, if you do encourage a woman to continue her pregnancy, you must be ready to provide real, meaningful support, financially, emotionally, and as a mentor for the child she will have. It is hypocritical as well as ineffectual to tell a young woman to bear her undesired child and then abandon them.

I'll end with one last thought. How could anyone tell a thirteen-year-old who has been raped by her father or her brother that she has to bear the child hate placed within her? Lest you think such things don't happen, just remember the bitter old joke that defined a virgin as a girl who can run faster than her brother.