Maybe you just don't know - A view on Abortion
Maybe you just don't know
By Emily L. Hauser
is a freelance writer living in Oak Park
Published March 16, 2006. Copyright by The Chicago Tribune
I've had an abortion. Have you?
The recent decision to ban virtually all abortions in South Dakota has generated a great deal of raucous arguing; many abortion opponents hope the new legislation will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and lead to the reversal of Roe vs. Wade. As usual, the argument suggests the existence of clear-cut opinion, the "supporting" or "opposing" of the act itself.
What is not discussed, of course, are people's hearts.
Women readers, of course, know their own answer to my question; many of their men would be surprised by it.
Many men don't know that their wives, sisters or mothers have, in fact, terminated a pregnancy. They don't know because the women they love fear their response. Will he see me differently? Will he--figuratively or literally--kill me?
So, as a nation and as individuals, we largely don't talk about it. And when we do, we're often not honest. The shadow of perceived opinion is very long. We speak publicly as if there were two clear positions--but in private, most of us know this isn't the truth.
My abortion is a thing of which I'm neither ashamed nor proud. I wish that I hadn't had to do it, but I did.
The average reader will want to know why--because most of us have a sliding scale of morality.
Even some staunch opponents will agree in cases of rape; others where there is genetic defect; a larger number, if the abortion takes place early in the first trimester; many, of course, think it's always a woman's choice.
I believe there is a vast middle ground made up of most Americans, those who feel abortion is neither irredeemably evil, nor free of moral implication. Witness polls conducted recently by the Pew Research Center: 65 percent of respondents don't want to see Roe vs. Wade overturned; 59 percent feel it would be better if fewer abortions were performed in this country.
At least some of our ambivalence may be cultural. Japanese society maintains a standard ritual, mizuko kuyo, to memorialize aborted or miscarried fetuses and stillborn babies. In a paper discussing the rite, Dr. Dennis Klass, a Webster University psychology of religion professor and a grief expert, writes: "The abortion experience is seen as a necessary sorrow tinged with grief, regret and fear which forces parents to apologize to the fetus and, thus, connect the fetus to the family."
This describes my own experience well--but I'm an American. I carry a different culture, and I fear that in apologizing, I accept some notion of personhood that somehow "makes" the entire thing--murder. So, I hesitate.
I ask myself: When I aborted my first pregnancy, did I kill a baby? I honestly don't think so. But did I stop the potential for life? Absolutely. Insofar as life itself is simultaneously the most mundane and most divine fact on our planet, this means something.
But I'm willing to say that I don't know what that something is. I can only function in the cold reality of my own world--and as such, I alone can judge whether my abortion was a moral choice. It wasn't easy, it wasn't happy, but it was the least-bad of two bad choices. It was moral.
I don't know anyone for whom abortion is easy; I don't know anyone (any woman, at least) who sees abortion as birth control. These choices are stunningly complex. When we deny that, when we talk as if we are all 100 percent clear on this issue, we deny our humanity. And we deny our grief.
And why, in the end, did I have my abortion? I'm not going to record that here. You and I don't know each other, and my reasons are personal. I don't need to defend them, and neither does your neighbor, the stranger at work--nor, perhaps, your girlfriend.
- - -
Abortion
By the numbers
35% of registered voters would support, in their own state, the South Dakota ban on abortion in all cases other than to save the life of the mother.
59% oppose a ban
74% think abortion should be legal in the case of rape or incest
83% think abortion should be legal if pregnancy puts the mother's life at risk
62% think abortion should be legal if pregnancy puts the mother's mental health at risk
43% think abortion should be legal if the pregnancy is unwanted
61% think partial-birth abortions should be banned
41% consider themselves pro-life
49% consider themselves pro-choice
Note: Poll of 900 voters taken nationwide; conducted Feb. 28 through March 1; margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points
Source: FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll
By Emily L. Hauser
is a freelance writer living in Oak Park
Published March 16, 2006. Copyright by The Chicago Tribune
I've had an abortion. Have you?
The recent decision to ban virtually all abortions in South Dakota has generated a great deal of raucous arguing; many abortion opponents hope the new legislation will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and lead to the reversal of Roe vs. Wade. As usual, the argument suggests the existence of clear-cut opinion, the "supporting" or "opposing" of the act itself.
What is not discussed, of course, are people's hearts.
Women readers, of course, know their own answer to my question; many of their men would be surprised by it.
Many men don't know that their wives, sisters or mothers have, in fact, terminated a pregnancy. They don't know because the women they love fear their response. Will he see me differently? Will he--figuratively or literally--kill me?
So, as a nation and as individuals, we largely don't talk about it. And when we do, we're often not honest. The shadow of perceived opinion is very long. We speak publicly as if there were two clear positions--but in private, most of us know this isn't the truth.
My abortion is a thing of which I'm neither ashamed nor proud. I wish that I hadn't had to do it, but I did.
The average reader will want to know why--because most of us have a sliding scale of morality.
Even some staunch opponents will agree in cases of rape; others where there is genetic defect; a larger number, if the abortion takes place early in the first trimester; many, of course, think it's always a woman's choice.
I believe there is a vast middle ground made up of most Americans, those who feel abortion is neither irredeemably evil, nor free of moral implication. Witness polls conducted recently by the Pew Research Center: 65 percent of respondents don't want to see Roe vs. Wade overturned; 59 percent feel it would be better if fewer abortions were performed in this country.
At least some of our ambivalence may be cultural. Japanese society maintains a standard ritual, mizuko kuyo, to memorialize aborted or miscarried fetuses and stillborn babies. In a paper discussing the rite, Dr. Dennis Klass, a Webster University psychology of religion professor and a grief expert, writes: "The abortion experience is seen as a necessary sorrow tinged with grief, regret and fear which forces parents to apologize to the fetus and, thus, connect the fetus to the family."
This describes my own experience well--but I'm an American. I carry a different culture, and I fear that in apologizing, I accept some notion of personhood that somehow "makes" the entire thing--murder. So, I hesitate.
I ask myself: When I aborted my first pregnancy, did I kill a baby? I honestly don't think so. But did I stop the potential for life? Absolutely. Insofar as life itself is simultaneously the most mundane and most divine fact on our planet, this means something.
But I'm willing to say that I don't know what that something is. I can only function in the cold reality of my own world--and as such, I alone can judge whether my abortion was a moral choice. It wasn't easy, it wasn't happy, but it was the least-bad of two bad choices. It was moral.
I don't know anyone for whom abortion is easy; I don't know anyone (any woman, at least) who sees abortion as birth control. These choices are stunningly complex. When we deny that, when we talk as if we are all 100 percent clear on this issue, we deny our humanity. And we deny our grief.
And why, in the end, did I have my abortion? I'm not going to record that here. You and I don't know each other, and my reasons are personal. I don't need to defend them, and neither does your neighbor, the stranger at work--nor, perhaps, your girlfriend.
- - -
Abortion
By the numbers
35% of registered voters would support, in their own state, the South Dakota ban on abortion in all cases other than to save the life of the mother.
59% oppose a ban
74% think abortion should be legal in the case of rape or incest
83% think abortion should be legal if pregnancy puts the mother's life at risk
62% think abortion should be legal if pregnancy puts the mother's mental health at risk
43% think abortion should be legal if the pregnancy is unwanted
61% think partial-birth abortions should be banned
41% consider themselves pro-life
49% consider themselves pro-choice
Note: Poll of 900 voters taken nationwide; conducted Feb. 28 through March 1; margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points
Source: FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll
posted by Carlos T Mock at 7:13 AM
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