Many people admit to being a one-issue voter. They would canonize Hitler himself in support of that one issue. I'm not, but I understand how someone might be. We could call it selective reasoning.
One of the top single issues these days is, of course, abortion.
As I have stated before, I don't have standing to judge this issue. It represents an issue limited to the female of our species. She must make a decision based on a situation I can't even imagine, much less pass judgement on.
But let's say, for argument's sake, that I could. How would I face the complex factors associated with it?
First, I would redefine the problem to be one of unwanted pregnancies. The question of whether to abort or not seems, to me, to be a result of, not an initiating factor of, a pregnancy which a sister faces, but decides against, because of health, rape, incest, poverty, or lack of knowledge. This resides within a society that is currently exhibiting less care and comfort for life outside the womb.
I would tend to address the question of how to avoid unwanted pregnancies rather that making it a capital offense for a mother facing debilitating health issues or a 12-year-old rape victim to seek medical salvation.
Thus defined, sex education would seem appropriate. I have read that in Brahm's day, it wasn't odd for puberty to initiate in one's late teens. I have also read that dietary improvements have reduced that to early teens, meaning a child must deal with raging hormones for much longer periods of time. Wouldn't it be wise and merciful to elucidate them to the consequences?
Then there is the question of sperm-donor responsibility. Most abortion laws originate from all-male or nearly all-male legal bodies. As a result, males receive little or no burden due to unwanted pregnancies. This will be true as long as highways, trains, buses and airplanes offer males the opportunity flee from consequences in a matter not available to the female. The womb can't "hit the road a'running."
Yes, I am aware that the uniform application of sex-offender laws might be fatal to high school football in the United States, but it might go far in addressing the problem as I see it.
Then there is the matter of contraception. The ability to hold, in one's mind a negative attitude, simultaneously, against both abortions and contraceptives is one of the inexplicable mysteries of the human mind.
I would support placing health care, and its myriad complexities in the hands of those trained for the purpose.
Finally, I would urge that any deserted mother would know she had the full support of her brethren to make sure that a child in America will not be born into a world of shame, neglect, and abandonment.
Above all, it is not a matter for political grandstanding. Society blossoms when we join hands and reason together, not when we choose sides and fight.
