06/30/2022
I think we can safely say that all of us hate abortion. The concept of having to extinguish a glimmering point of human life, however small, makes all of humanity feel tearful, regretful and deeply saddened.
But the fact is that continuing with a pregnancy can, for many reasons, be harmful for the fetus, or unborn child, or for the mother.
This could be due to a genetic or physical make-up of the fetus that would lead to a life with severe disability or incapacity.
This could be due to horrifying circumstances of conception such as r**e or in**st.
This could be due to situations of potential birth into abject poverty, or to a mother who is barely more than a child herself, or to a mother with mental illness taking dangerous medication, or to a couple that is fractured by violence or hatred.
This could be when childbearing is life-endangering to the mother.
This could also be due to conception by a mother who lacks understanding of birth control or has no access to it.
There is never a reason for abortion that is other than terrifying, unregretted, or heart-rending.
Democrats have been characterized as demanding that abortion be on demand.
A medical decision between a patient and her doctor should never be sullied by ignorant laws created by legislators. No one advocates late-stage abortion except in dire situations where, between the patient and her doctors, there is no alternative option.
I also seriously doubt that any citizen would advocate medical or surgical abortions in the absence of the woman’s complete and verbal understanding of the impact and meaning of a termination of pregnancy.
Such education might include images of her condition, a short class, or even a sonogram, providing that such preliminaries would not unduly prevent, delay, or financially burden the patient. One requirement should be an explicit discussion of the availability of adoption of the yet-unborn child as an alternative to termination of pregnancy.
But we, as citizens of many political affiliations believe that all women must again be given access to abortion – much as we loathe the process.
The right to this access is a right that should never have been overridden or removed. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that access to abortion is not guaranteed by the Constitution, voters must elect legislators who will create an amendment with such a guarantee. The amendment would have to scientifically delineate a means of defining when a fetus can survive delivery. Such legislation will take years.
In the meantime, state voters must elect legislators who recognize the tragedy of the birth of fetuses afflicted by the circumstances mentioned above. State laws must be crafted that allow all women to halt gestation at a realistic and humane point. For example, many women do not recognize pregnancy until the eighth week of gestation. Prosecution of doctors who deal with these issues must be abolished.
Only a fraction of children born to women in the categories mentioned are, in fact, adopted. Many are abandoned or otherwise mistreated. For women who undergo delivery as a result of falling outside such established criteria through no fault of their own, funding for the care for such children should be the responsibility of states with laws that lead to such births. Responsibility should also be legally borne by the fathers of the children up to the legal age of the child. Women should not have to take court action for this to occur. This would include child care and educational assistance. The latter should be a Federal law, not just a state law, since federal funds are an important source of state funds.
