ABORTION OR NOT?
by Jan Brazill
What Would You Do?
I have seen many young women with their baby carriages lining the streets protesting abortion clinics. These are women who, most likely, have traditional marriages that welcome families. I had to wonder if any of them had made difficult choices during their pregnancies.
Having been an abortion clinic escort, I am very aware of the many reasons for abortions. I remember one woman who had been told that this pregnancy could cost her life. She and her husband had to endure taunts of “Murderer” as we led them through the screaming, picketing crowd. He told us that her death from continuing the pregnancy would mean that there would be no one to care for their existing three children. What would you do?
Some women endure abusive relationships or see that a child is abused by a partner. Bearing another child is unthinkable, so a secret abortion is attained. What would you do?
A woman may have a medical condition that forbids pregnancy. Since no contraceptive works perfectly, should she give up her life to bear an accidental pregnancy who - if somehow surviving its mother's death - would then be motherless?
There are many reasons for choosing abortion. When pregnancies are the result of an act of rape or incest, many could not bear to give birth to a child that would be a constant reminder of the incident. Worse, if it were incest, that child might be subject to the same abuse!
And what if your pregnancy were diagnosed to have an 'unacceptable quality of life' if born, such as a severe physical handicap or serious genetic problem? While some may opt to continue such a pregnancy, no one should be forced to take on such a burden, or inflict such suffering on a child. This attitude should not be taken as disrespectful to the disabled, but one has to consider whether adequate care could be afforded to such a child for as long as it would live.
There are also social reasons for abortion, including poverty, a mother unable to cope with a child (or another child), or a mother being too young to adequately nurture a child. And there is plain failure of birth control. Abortion is often the solution when birth control is unavailable or unaffordable.
President Trump’s recent reinstatement of the “Global Gag Rule” has almost certainly increased the number of abortions in the world. One of his first actions was to sign an executive order banning international Non-Governmental-Organizations who receive US funding from providing abortion services or even offering information about abortions. The Gag Rule was first initiated by the Reagan administration, but that applied to only the provision of abortions. Trump’s action goes further, causing many international family-planning organizations to reject needed funding for contraceptives, because even though they do not provide abortions, they want to be able to advise unfortunate women who need abortion with information to save their lives. And women in our own country may also soon be in that same situation! Pres. Trump is seeking to ban federal funds from Title X of the Public Health Service Act from going to any US organization that provides abortions or refers patients to abortion providers.
So think about it: All these people have to make serious choices. What would you do? What will you do?
Published in the June 6, 2018 edition of the Freethinkers of Colorado Springs Freethought Views advertorial column in the Colorado Springs Independent with the quotation below.
"Gods always come in handy; they justify almost anything.”
Margaret Atwood