ABORTION ORATION
The Law
Abortion has been legal since 1973. Congress will not change the law. Republicans could have changed it in the Bush II era when they comprised a majority in both houses of Congress and held the presidency. They proclaimed the moral imperative on abortion but failed to change the law. They knew that since the American population was equally divided for and against abortion, it would have caused social disorder. (Many Republicans are pro-abortion, in any case.) The women’s movement would have become rejuvenated and fought anti-abortion in the streets. Women would still do so if their choice for abortion is threatened.
I will remind you that the freedom to use abortion does not force a woman to have one. A woman who does not want to abort her fetus does not have to do so. Therefore, allowing abortion is an increased freedom. (I mention this because it appears from the Pro-Life forces that to allow abortion means that a woman must do it.)
The Quickening of Life
Some consider life to begin at conception. Others consider life not to begin until a fetus is viable, at least into the third trimester of gestation. Others again suppose that life is not viable until an infant is born and breathes on its own.
Many consider that until a fetus is viable and can breathe, it is simply a collection of cells. The problem with this view is that such a collection of cells will eventuate not in an elephant, a tree or a car, but in a human life, and with 94% normality.
I share this view that is in essence a Christian one. However, America is no longer a monolithic Christian society. Many and various people are now citizens from exceptionally different religious, philosophical and cultural views. Some have other opinions of the medical or scientific basis for the origin of human life. (If you dislike the diversity of American society, you must place the blame for it where it belongs, on previous Congresses and presidents and on the factors that influenced them for their decisions.)
Within the population, there also exists secularism that is a development of the Christian tradition critiqued and informed by modern scholars from the cultures of the ancient peoples of the West. They allow abortion. I am within this milieu.
If we ignore the beliefs of other peoples and individuals in the formation of our laws, it would create endless conflict. Social conflict is disruptive of the stability of the nation.
Who Should Use It?
Some claim that a woman has an absolute right to her body, including abortion. I disagree. There is no absolute right to anything. (In my youth I was taken by the draft for Vietnam. I had no right to my body by law.) Abortion should not be allowed for children and minors unless there are exceptional circumstances. I consider children and minors to be those who are dependent on parents or guardians for their economic and ethical or intellectual life, in two categories. Certainly, children up to the age of 16 should not be allowed to abort without parental or guardianship involvement and consent. They have no critical understanding to allow them to terminate a pregnancy. Women over the age of 16 and into their college or young adult working years who remain dependent should not be allowed to abort without informed consent, as they are still dependent, even though they are voluntarily so, as they could be on their own.
To allow children and minors legally to make a decision on abortion could be called “The destruction of the family act.” Some persons allow children to abort without parental involvement because they know their own children would never do it. (I believe that such opinions have a racial or class prejudice.)
If there is an issue with violence by parents or guardians against their pregnant dependent child, there must be provisions in the law for social service individuals to explore it and make a decision with legal support. (It is done in public and private social agencies to protect women and children from violence from husbands, ex-husbands, fathers, boyfriends and others.)
A woman who is married should not be allowed to abort without discussion and assent from her spouse. To allow it could be termed “The destruction of marriage act.” What, exactly, could be the emotional content of a marriage when a woman aborts a fetus either from her husband or lover without informing her husband? Such an action would out, eventually, however much a woman might gain from remaining married to a man whose potential child she aborted, or who aborted the child of another man. I would not give such a marriage long to last, and it might have destructive effects.
A man should be held accountable in the same manner.
There is always the possibility that admission of pregnancy by adultery, or a wish not to have more children by a woman to her husband would, eventually, strengthen a marriage. For a man to admit his role in a pregnancy by another woman may also strengthen a marriage by allowing him to explain his sexual desires.
Who, then, should be allowed freely to abort? An unmarried woman who is financially independent and is employed and thus assumed to have a mature emotional life, should be allowed to abort, ---after, however, having discussed the issue with a boyfriend or lover, live-in or occasional, and having gotten his consent at the onset of an intimate relationship and before pregnancy.
Of course, women who have gotten raped should be allowed to abort. The reason is that they did not agree to have sexual relations, and rape is an assault and not love-making, in any event. A woman whose life is endangered by a pregnancy should be allowed to abort, as actual life takes priority over potential life.
The Last Resort
Abortion should be the last resort for a woman, but it has become a method of birth control. No woman has to become pregnant, with modern birth control procedures. The reason so many do is that women want someone to love. They do not get love in their daily lives, and believe a child will give it to them. Or, they think that an occasional sex partner will give them love, and are then cruelly deceived. This is especially the case with teenagers. There is adoption, and many agencies that would help a woman through pregnancy and adoption of her child.
We must remember that many if not most women who abort experience remorse for it later in life. (I know it from professional experience.)
For those women who are bound and determined to abort, there is another view to allow it. Life is tough, even in these United States. Children need all the help they can get to have a decent life. If a woman does not want her child, what would it do to force her to carry the child to term and give it up for adoption? If a child does not begin life with the love of its mother (even a mother who nevertheless has to give it up to adoption), what chance does it have in the world? Furthermore – and this is a hard statement – if a woman does not want her child, why should we? (It would be better for an unborn fetus simply to cease existence; or, to reside in the Godhead rather than have a likely miserable existence, if you believe in that theological system.)
Relentless Sexuality
The chief question in the prevalence of abortion among children is how they discovered sexuality so early in their lives? I believe the media has the major share in the blame of it, and to exploit for profit. The media must be disciplined. Free speech does not mean licentiousness to the ruination of our children and young people. It was better, years ago, when information we now call “adult” was available, but hidden and difficult to obtain.
Further, statutory rape is not prosecuted with enough vigor to dissuade those men intent on having sex with minors.
A Different Perspective
It appears that the conflict between those who are for and against abortion will be endless. There is another way to view the issue. Rather than conflict, I suggest that both the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life forces come together to agitate for the Congress to create a society where every pregnant woman, whatever the circumstances of her pregnancy, is assured that there will be a place and a status for the child she would eventually bring into the world,---for food, clothing, shelter, health care, education and participation in the decisions that affect its life,---and for love, too, from parent and partner, the desire for which is the cause of the discussion of and necessity for abortion. In this way, while abortion would continue to be legal, few would use it.
Abortion is the failure of love. I want to see the forces for both Pro-Choice and Pro-Life demonstrate for a society of equity in every city, in Washington, D.C. and inside the offices of their Congressmen.
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I offer my essay for those who want order and stability in our country. We do not have to prefer order and stability, but then conflict will shake America to pieces, ---together with conflict over so many other issues: Gay marriage, gun control, illegal immigration, the intrusion of media, the exploitation by corporations, wars in Central Asia, financial manipulation, universal health care, etc. ad nauseum. Order and stability in America may not even be desirable because the next synthesis in the dialectic of history may be an improvement, ---and perhaps inevitable. (This is an issue for another essay.)
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I understand that many persons will not like my conclusions about abortion. Consider the following. About a month ago in my local big box drug store, I saw an ad out of the corner of my eye that advised women “Not to pay for their mistakes.” I thought it was an ad for the morning after pill, or for another birth control option. But it turned out, on closer view, to advise women that they could chose another option to change the mistakes they may have made with their cosmetics. Ha! Ha! On me! (But the drug store does offer morning after pills.)
However, the sentiment is typical. In America, because of science and technology, there seems to be no reason to pay for your mistakes in very many instances. Therefore, do anything you like about abortion or any other issue. Why should anything mean anything? Do what you want. You are as good as anyone. (This attitude, I will suggest, is the reason corporations exploit you in all things and make you a slave to your desire and your debt.)
Alas for you, it is not possible to avoid suffering for your mistakes, if not physically, or morally and spiritually, then emotionally and if not immediately then later in time. I suffered for my mistakes, and still am. It is a law of the universe.
(TRC 05-25-2010)
