"The Choice for Choice" - Commentary by Tony Seton

The Choice for Choice

The governor of South Dakota, to no one’s surprise, has signed a measure that would make it illegal for a doctor to perform an abortion. The only exception would be if the prospective mother’s life were endangered. Abortion would be illegal even in the case of rape or incest, two exceptions even George Bush supports.

The South Dakota measure was one of a flurry of red-state actions designed to bring the matter before the new Supreme Court, now that the Black-Robed Nine have Samuel Alito and John Roberts on their bench. Both new justices indicated publicly during their confirmation hearings that they would uphold the 1973 Roe v. Wade precedent, but neither is legally bound by those indications. And it must be presumed that they were nominated because they gave private indications to the president that they would perhaps or probably vote to overturn that landmark women’s rights decision.

No doubt the Mount Rushmore governor had an easy decision. This is a sparsely populated state, with a lot of people lacking both education and money. They are whiter. They are older. Though Mike Rounds said he would have to think about the bill before signing it, it was more likely that Washington’s face would have fallen off the mountain than the Republican governor would have vetoed the measure. Rounds explained that he was protecting the most vulnerable in our society.

Abortion opponents, as they are called in the press, are most excited by the new law which won’t take effect until the obvious legal challenges are exhausted. In the meantime, there is a single abortion clinic in the whole state of South Dakota, and the 800 procedures a year are performed there by doctors who come in from neighboring Minnesota, according to abortion supporters, as they are called in the press.

Of course, but we forget this, no one is in favor of abortion. Everyone not insane is pro-life. The American media has disgraced itself by applying the wrong labels to this tragic situation, and in doing so have mis-characterized the issues. And in doing so, they have enabled tightly-wrapped fundamentalists to manipulate the discussion, so that what should clearly be a personal medical matter between a woman and her doctor is most regrettably a public political issue that involves thousands of macho-misogynist male legislators.

Abortions aren’t nice. Whether or not you believe that there is a sentient being at conception or that an actual person doesn’t begin take form until months into gestation, there is life there from the point of conception and no sane person thinks it’s a good idea to snuff it out. We don’t know the potential of the human being that would grow out of that zygote, and as human beings, that must weigh on healthy minds.

But the point is not at what stage life exists. If we were purists, we would probably not eat meat. We would probably also say that people in pain -- especially those nearing the end of their lives -- might depart in dignity. Personally, I don’t think anyone has a right to tell anyone what she or he might do with their body. What could be more of an individual decision? What more important right could a person have?

Whatever your perspective, however, those who want to significantly reduce the number of abortions could deal with the outrageous fact that more than 60% of the pregnancies in our country are unplanned and/or unwanted. Not that many people use abortion as birth control, but it would by definition lower the need of those who do, as well as eliminate the births of so many children who would otherwise find themselves in unhealthy situations.

The core problem is that while we sell everything from detergent to cars with sexual images, we don’t actually inform people about sex. Millions of Americans don’t know how their bodies work in general and the reproductive process in particular. At the time Magic Johnson was forecast with AIDS, the Chicago Tribune reported that one in ten callers to a suburban health clinic didn’t know the meaning of the word heterosexual. And a recent survey of pregnant teens reported in the Los Angeles Times revealed that some thought they couldn’t get pregnant the first time.

Shameful as is the ignorance, perverse morality or obstinance of those controlling the information to our young, the fact is that every child has a right to understand their own bodies. If only on a physical level; though we’d have a much healthier country if we made a point to educate everyone on subjects like intimacy.

Of course, that would represent a considerable leap in consciousness for our society. A third of the adults in the United States have a drinking problem, which is responsible for a bunch of those unintended pregnancies. It also fits that the U.S. ranks 40^th in infant mortality, that a fifth of our children are malnourished, that we face a childhood obesity epidemic, and that parental abuse is one of our leading causes of childhood death.

It has been opined that one of the reasons for opposing abortion, especially as some do so vociferously -- hey, they shoot doctors -- has less to do with protecting the unborn and more about fear of sex. Considering how muddled we are in our thinking about human sexuality, it makes a lot of sense. I mean, our savior, speaking generally, was born to a virgin. And for that matter, Islamic fundamentalists slaughter innocents by the dozen for the purpose of sitting at the right hand of Allah with 73 virgins; what will they do with them?

Also consider that a large percentage of those who oppose abortion support capital punishment, they are unswervingly behind anything military and they were gung-ho to invade Iraq. One might infer there is not so much concern with the sanctity of human life as other issues. That’s fine, so long as they don’t cripple succeeding generations with their failure to understand the vital realities of life.

Wouldn’t it be grand if the intelligent design folks insisted that we teach our children how their own bodies functioned, and what it would mean to live their lives in a spiritual way, with less trailer-trash promiscuity and drinking? We are getting so much wrong when it would be so much easier to get so much right, with just a little more light.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.