Life Principles in the News
The following appeared in the Seattle Times on February 8, 2006.
Abortion Isn't the Answer
By Lisa-Ann Oliver, Special to The Times
Remember back in the old days when schoolteachers would propose some kind of social problem, and encourage the class to come up with a really creative way to solve it? I used to love those exercises.
When I was a kid, I had a bone disease, and for two years both my legs were in casts, from hip to toe, with a crossbar in between for support. I used crutches, one in front and one in back, and I hopped in order to move. Getting on the bus proved a real challenge, and even if I did manage to get on, I couldn't fit on the seat because my legs would stick out. My mother solved the problem by finding a way to maneuver 60 pounds of child and 40 pounds of plaster into the station wagon, drive me to school, and then carry me down the steps. Not the most dignified way to arrive at school every morning. But it was creative.
So, whatever happened to thinking creatively? Don't people learn how to do that anymore?
Recently, I was invited to speak on abortion for a women's studies class at a prestigious private school in Seattle. I'm pro-life, so we talked about the meaning of human life, and how it seems to come down to love. We talked about how freedom requires commitment to what is true and good; and how all human beings have intrinsic worth, no matter what their size, shape, abilities, or age; and how inalienable rights become meaningless when we start denying them to certain people.
Afterwards, the questions went something like this:
"What about when a woman is raped? Shouldn't abortion be legal then?"
"What if she's a poor single mother, and the father won't pay child support. Isn't abortion a good answer??"
"What if the baby is disabled? Shouldn't she abort?"
It struck me that, for every legitimate social problem they listed, each student focused on abortion as the answer. Apparently, abortion could solve everything from disabilities to poverty, to marginalization, discrimination, domination, exploitation and even violence against women.
But if that were true, then why do these social problems still plague us? And why are some of them getting worse?
It seems to me that when a woman has been raped, abortion doesn't take away that tragedy - it only adds another one. Abortion doesn't cause men to be more responsible to the children they father - it gives them an excuse to be less responsible. And aborting a disabled child seems a rather disingenuous way of claiming to solve the problem of disabilities. It's rather like claiming to solve world hunger by shooting all the hungry people.
According to the latest statistics from the Alan Guttmacher Institute, whose roots trace back to Planned Parenthood, three-quarters of aborting women say they chose abortion because "having a baby would interfere with work, school, or other responsibilities." Two-thirds also claim that they "cannot afford to have a child." And half say that they "do not want to be a single parent."
So what's the real problem? More often than not, women are having abortions because their jobs or their schools refuse to cooperate with their needs, and because their "support systems" do not provide them emotional or material support. "Your choice - your problem." That's a pretty pathetic way for a "liberated culture" to be treating its women, don't you think?
On the other hand, we could begin encouraging students to use their heads, and especially their hearts, to find real answers to social problems. Solving the problems that lead to abortion may require some creativity. Like passing better laws to protect women from rape and incest, finding more realistic ways to help single moms out of poverty, holding men accountable for the children they father, and requiring schools and workplaces to better accommodate their members who choose life over abortion.
Sometimes real answers require a lot from us. Like carrying 60 pounds of child and 40 pounds of plaster down the schoolyard steps. But in the process, we might just learn what any devoted mother already knows in her heart. A little bit of creativity and a lot of love can solve just about any problem.