Monday, June 20, 2005

Conversation with a man from the future about abortion

Sometimes thinking about today problems it is useful to imagine what will happen with these problems in the future. I tried...
I don't know how did they meet, the man of today (T) and the man of the future (F), but this is their conversation.
T. Are you pro-choice or pro-life?
F. ????
T. Do you think that a woman has a right to decide when she would like to give birth to her children?
F. Sure. Who else can decide? I know that several centuries ago some governments tried to interfere, but this was long ago.
T. I have in mind a right to perform abortion.
F. What is abortion?
T. explains
F. We don't have this word. The closest word we have is amputation, which means a surgical removal of a part of human body. Of course, it would be ridiculous to forbid amputation. Only a crazy person can amputate a part of his body without a very serious reason.
T. But what are doing your women in the case of unwanted pregnancy?
F. Unwanted pregnancy? How can this happen?
Contraception is quite easy, one pill suffices.
T. Is this pill taken before intercourse or after that?
F. I don't know, you should ask my wife. Why is this important?
T. But what happens if a woman has forgotten to take a pill?
F. What happens if a woman forgets to put her dress on and comes to her office in underwear?
T. This is impossible! How can one forget to put the dress on?
F. Why do you think that it is possible to forget to take a pill?

I am not quite sure that the conversation would be precisely of this kind.
Probably, much better ways of contraception will be invented and pills will not be used. I expect that contraception will be as simple as drinking a glas of soda. (This is a reference to an old joke. A young couple comes to a doctor seeking an advice for simple and reliable contraception. The answer is :"Drink soda".
They leave quite happy, but come back with a question " Before that or after that?" and get the answer "Instead of that!")
Both pro choice and pro life activists will be
happy -there will be no abortions and reproductive rights will be protected.

I believe that the discussion about abortion goes in wrong direction.
There is one thing that everybody should accept:
ABORTION IS THE WORST POSSIBLE WAY OF BIRTH CONTROL.
Every abortion is a failure: either a failure of other methods of birth control or a failure to think about consequences of own actions.
Everybody should agree that a common goal is to minimize the number of abortions. You can suggest different means starting with abstinence and ending with oral sex, but you should agree with this goal and after that one can discuss the means.

I do not think that it is a right idea to outlaw abortions.
Imagine a healthy woman in her fifties, happy mother of six children and happy grandmother
of twenty grandchildren. Imagine, she learns in the same day that she is pregnant and that her granddaughter expects a child . (Probably, she interpreted the signs of pregnancy as the signs of menopause.) Should this lady give a birth because her husband's condom was defective? She decides to make an abortion. Should she and her physician be considered as murderers?

Of course, this is an extremal case. Probably, almost all people would say that this lady has a right to terminate pregnancy if she wants. However, if you accept her right you should accept that other women also have the same right. Should these women use this right? This is a completely different question.
My personal opinion is that abortion is a very bad thing, but there are things even worse.
A birth of unwanted, unloved, unhappy child is one of them.
Other people can have different opinion, but this difference should be irrelevant. It is possible to have no abortions and no unwanted children and this should be our common goal.