The abortion debate is about who dies, the unborn fetus or the young mother. Many years ago, abortion was illegal. It also was readily available in back alleys, with coat hangers and other appliances that led to multiple medical problems. Before abortions were legalized and became part of the routine medical procedure list, thousands of young women died from infection, bleeding, and ruptured uterus. Hospital gynecology wards were filled on weekends with incomplete and septic abortion cases; all this because abortion was illegal.
Why don’t we ever learn from past experience? From time immemorial, mankind has experienced sex, and abortion. We have legislated about these acts, with no regard to what the effect of that legislation might be. We have punished what we have legislated against, but never, never, have we ever caused any of these to acts to cease because we have deemed them to be immoral.
In Nevada, today, prostitution is legal, except in Washau (Reno and Carson City) and Clark (Las Vegas) counties. Of course, prostitution is rampant in both of these counties even though it is, and has been, illegal. What does this tell us? If people want something, legal or not, it will be supplied, it has been supplied, and it will continue to be supplied, for the foreseeable future. Society will never abandon prostitution. In those counties in Nevada in which it is legal, it is regulated, taxed, and good business.
Recently, Dr. Kermit Gosnell was convicted of murder while performing very late term abortions and killing live born babies. What we must learn from these actions is that women will seek out abortion to do away with their unwanted pregnancies whether it is legal, moral or not. If we attempt to restrict abortion, it will not go away. It will not cease to exist. It will continue in a less clean form, with bad consequences. We may have any personal feelings about the correctness of abortion, and they should guide us in our actions individually, but we must face the fact that we will NEVER eliminate abortion; all we can do is make it more dangerous for the mothers of the unwanted children. To those who say it is wrong to kill an unborn fetus, I ask is it any more correct to condemn the mother to a death from an unclean abortion. We cannot choose one death as more righteous than the other. Those who are pro life might say that the mother who aborts their fetus should run a risk of infection, bleeding or death as a consequence, but that kind of morality does not make sense. It is like saying two wrongs make one right. Even if you think the mother who aborts a fetus is wrong, you cannot wish that woman harm as a consequence. That should make you no better than the mother in your own eyes. The fact is that we can express moral indignation, moral rectitude, but if someone wants something badly enough, there will be someone else to supply it. This is the case with both of these acts, abortion and prostitution. We waste so much effort and time trying to eliminate prostitution for moral reasons, let’s not return to the dark days of the past with abortion as well.
Politics Magazine
