SHORT TAKES ON ABORTION: So I’m really not up for writing the same stuff I’ve written in the past, or stuff that other people can say better than I can, but in the context of this post and its associated links I’d like to throw out some brief thoughts–things to keep in mind when trying to figure out whether legal abortion is okay.

1) Ampersand argues that the burden of proof falls on pro-lifers, since we’re trying to restrict freedom. I think this is a distraction. Pro-lifers are trying to restrict a freedom (setting aside various debates about whether you can be “free” to murder/rob/rape/etc.); supporters of legal abortion are arguing that it’s OK to take the life of a human who’s committed no crime. Seems to me that both sides have some ‘splainin’ to do, and arguing about who has the “burden of proof” is unlikely to convince anyone, really.

2) A fetus differs from a newborn in: location; degree of dependence on one particular person (pretty much all humans, and certainly all children, are dependent on somebody); and, depending on how late in the pregnancy we’re talking about, degree of development. That’s it. That’s not enough. I talk a bit about degree of development here; as for dependency on one particular person, while I do hope that technology will eventually make this irrelevant, in the meantime it’s important to note that such dependency in no way removes our obligations to a child, or that child’s worth. There are other children who are, temporarily, entirely dependent on one person–for example, when a woman gives birth in secret, as some desperate teen mothers do, nobody knows about her baby right after it’s been born. The child is entirely dependent on her: Will she abandon the infant? Will she care for the child? Will she leave him or her in an environment (a drop-off site, or a hospital, say) where he/she will be cared for? Will she put the child in an environment (a dumpster; a February night in Minnesota) where the child will die? Will she actively kill the child? There are no perfect analogies for pregnancy, but this is a partial analogy, since the young mother may feel just as trapped, just as shamed, just as harassed and violated by her child and betrayed by her body as some women who seek abortions feel. And her child is, until she decides what she will do with the infant, utterly dependent on her. The child’s life is in her hands. And that fact affects the child’s worth and right to life not one bit.

3) Abortion is not just a stranger refusing to perform a heroic act, like running into a burning building, to save a stranger. It is a mother deliberately killing or ordering the killing of her own child. (As the slogan says, “If it’s not alive, why are you killing it?”, or as one pro-life woman of my acquaintance said, “If it’s not a baby, you’re not pregnant.”) Heroism is often required of women facing unwanted pregnancy, just as heroism is required of many of us at some point in our lives. But there is not only heroism, but also obligation–the obligation of a parent to a child, and the obligation of any person to defend the unwanted, the ignored, and the helpless.

4) There is no solution to an unwanted pregnancy that can erase the past. There are no “do-overs.” A woman with an unwanted pregnancy must choose between pregnancy, birth and childrearing; pregnancy, birth, and placing the child for adoption; or surgical intervention–i.e. introducing a vacuum and a knife into the womb in order to kill the developing child. There is no option in which the woman gets her life back exactly as it was. (I know many abortion-rights advocates dismiss claims of emotional pain after abortion, but I’ve heard too many women–often unprompted–talk about their sorrow to think post-abortion depression is a myth.) I apologize if this sounds condescending–I know many abortion-rights advocates do understand this, and I’m only speaking to those who don’t, those who think of abortion as a rewind button or an eraser. (That’s pretty much how I used to think of it.)

5) From Frederica Mathewes-Green, something to consider: “In defending the path of abortion, Supreme Court Justice Blackmun wrote, ‘Millions of women…have ordered their lives around [access to abortion], and…this right has become vital to the full participation of women in…American life.’ We recoil to think that something so hideous could have become necessary to our lives. How can it be that we must sacrifice our children to succeed? Is such a sacrifice laid on men? Is any other oppressed or marginalized group required to have surgery in order to participate in American life?”