Should a woman have the right to choose abortion?

Yes

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by Mary W. Matthews

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There are dozens of excellent reasons why women should have the right to make their own decisions about what happens to their own bodies. The two most important sets of reasons are biological and moral.

BIOLOGICAL
No one wastes time debating whether a woman has the right to have fibroid tumors removed from her uterus, even though fibroids are exactly as alive and exactly as human as embryos are. And yet when smaller cell-forms are excised from a uterus, if there's any chance these cells MIGHT evolve into a baby 266 days later, screams of "Murder!" ensue.

Many people talk as if they believe that the instant a sperm cell meets an ovum and becomes a zygote, that zygote is "a whole separate unique human being," and thus deserves MORE rights than its mother has. (These same people have no problem with capital punishment, so long as the pregnancy is terminated after the 201st month.)

But is a collection of two, four, or even 1,024 cells (as you read this, you have about 50 trillion cells) REALLY "a whole separate unique human being"? Does it have a personality? Can it think? If this collection of cells were in one petrie dish, and a fibroid tumor were in another dish, could you tell which one has MORE legal rights than the woman it came from?

The difference between two blobs of living tissue, one of which is a tumor and one of which MAY develop into a baby, comes down to this: when does a developing life become a PERSON? It's perfectly acceptable to remove a tumor, but killing a PERSON unjustly, or for some profit to oneself, is murder.

If an hours-old zygote is a PERSON, then a raw egg is a chicken salad sandwich.

Here's what the anti-choice crowd doesn't seem to understand: Gestation isn't an event, it's a PROCESS. Just as it takes about a year to turn a raw egg into a chicken salad sandwich, it takes many months for a developing life to become a PERSON.

Look at a newborn baby. Is he chronically late? Does she hate rap music? Yes, the newborn baby LOOKS like a person, and most people (including me) regard babies as people — in today's world. In Jesus's time, babies were more like replacement parts. In Jesus's time, one-third of newborn babies died before reaching age 1, and a second third died before reaching age 15. You just couldn't afford to get sentimental about babies, or your heart would break and break. I'm bringing up Jesus's time because it is representative of what the world was like from approximately 198000 BCE to approximately 100 years ago, and what the world remains like for billions of people in Third World countries today.

After a sperm cell meets an egg cell, it becomes a zygote, which MAY become a morula, which MAY become an embryoblast, which MAY become a blastocyte, which MAY become an embryo, which MAY become a fetus, which MAY become a baby. Every step of the way is fraught with peril. Many physicians believe that 15 to 40 percent of all pregnancies are aborted by God or nature. Some mothers didn't even notice they were pregnant; others mourn miscarriages they never wanted.

If all abortions are murder, every woman who has a miscarriage should be prosecuted. If NOT all abortions are murder, why is this debate necessary?

What happens during pregnancy is complicated, and much depends on the woman whose body has been invaded. If she is joyous about becoming a mother, as most of us are, she will eat a sensible diet, refrain from alcohol, cigarettes, and coffee (not to mention drugs like Thalidomide!), and work hard to help the "bun in her oven" evolve into a beautiful "cake."

But what about a woman who does NOT want to become a mother? What about a woman who hates and resents the life inside her, 24/7 for nine months? Since chronic anger changes a person's body chemistry, it has terrible effects on a developing fetus. Babies of mothers who spent nine months stewing in negative emotions have low birth weight, low APGAR scores, and heart problems. The younger the unhappy mother, the greater is the likelihood that her newborn will have serious health issues.

What about the woman who is so angry at being compelled to become a mother by zealots from a religion she disagrees with that she DELIBERATELY smokes, drinks alcohol, and takes illegal drugs? Is the permanent damage she does as sacred as the embryo?

And let's remember, it's not just nine months we're talking about. We're talking about nine months PLUS at least 18 years. We're talking about at least two lifetimes of hell on earth.

What if a pregnant woman is too poor to afford the right vitamins, much less an obstetrician? What if she is too poor to afford to eat properly? A malnourished fetus becomes a baby prone to type 1 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, and brittle bones. Children who grow up in poverty have IQs about 13 points below average and are far more likely to smoke cigarettes, take illegal drugs, and become unemployed or criminal adults. Girls raised in poverty are far more likely to become unwed teenage mothers.

In 2000, there were about 37 million Americans living in poverty. After eight years of the Replutocrats systematically transferring wealth to the top 5 percent, in 2008 there are approximately 41 million Americans living in poverty. (It is difficult to supply exact figures, because when the Bush administration is confronted with a statistic it doesn't like, it either makes the statistic a secret or rejiggers the formula the statistic is based on. For example, if today's rate of unemployment were calculated using 1980's formula, it would be around 13 percent.) If abortion were criminalized, that number would skyrocket.

Counting doctor visits, vitamins, adequate diet, ultrasounds, lab work, prescription drugs, hospital visit(s), and other pregnancy-related needs, it costs at least $20,000 to take a developing life from diagnosis to happy baby. Between birth and age 18, a "whole separate unique human being" will need at least $86,400, and that's NOT counting little details like school trips or swimming lessons.

In my opinion, people who are adamantly against allowing women to control their own bodies ought to contract to pay at least $110,000, indexed to inflation, to each woman whom they would deprive of freedom. If they're not willing to put their money where their mouths are, they should legally promise the unwilling mother their UNCONDITIONAL love, support, and acceptance for the next 19 years. If they won't do either one, they're not objecting to abortion on principle; they're enslaving women to their religion's dogma.

MORAL
Many people confuse religion with morality, and people who aren't steeped in their religion's dogma on human rights (and women's lack thereof) tend to allow female citizens the same rights they allow male citizens. So let's examine the moral question of female autonomy from the perspective of the book of Genesis.

Is the Bible speaking truthfully when it tells us that God created WOMEN in God's image? (Gen. 1:27 AND 5:1-2)

Anti-choicers will reply, "Yes, but—" Stop right there! There IS NO "but." Either women are created by God in God's image, or we are as subhuman as brood mares. There is no middle ground. Either the Bible is right and true, OR women cannot be trusted to control their own bodies.

If I am created by God in God's image, I have the right to control my own body and to make my own health-care decisions. If I am NOT, society ought to immediately deprive me of the rights to vote, drive, and enter into legal contracts.

Maybe I am a 12-year-old girl who was raped by her father. Maybe I am a 50-year-old woman with Parkinson's disease. Maybe the ultrasounds revealed a genetic monster who, if carried to term, would live for six months in agony before dying horribly. Maybe I have Tay-Sachs disease or sickle-cell anemia. All of these are excellent reasons for abortion.

Or maybe none of those things. Maybe I am a selfish hedonist who hates children and thinks of abortion as an expensive form of birth control. IT DOESN'T MATTER. Either I am created by God in God's image, and thus fully capable of my own relationship with God, or I am a uterus on legs, good for nothing but incubating life.

Either I am created by God in God's image, OR I am your slave. If you believe you have the right to dictate what happens to my uterus, I have the right to dictate what happens to your testicles.

The decision to have an abortion is a wrenching, deeply personal one that ought to remain between each "whole separate unique" woman and God. The RIGHT to have an abortion ought to be unquestionable.

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