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C
The
ase
Aga1nst
A
by
Jetf Calkins
D
epending on your point of
view, an abortion can usually
be described in one of two
ways:
• A doctor injects novocaine into
the abdomen of a woman. The doc–
tor then takes a three-and-a-half–
inch-long spinal needle and places it
on the spot where he first injected
the novocaine. He pushes it in all
the way. He takes out sorne yellow
liquid. The process is repeated three
times. The needle, connected to
sorne tubing, is left in her abdomen.
The doctor connects the tubing to a
bottle of saline solution. After what
seems to be an etemity, the doctor
removes the tubing and the needle.
The woman is told to go back to het
room. Within twenty-four hours she
will face a process exactly like cillld–
birth: breaking of the bag of waters,
cramps, labor. But when the baby is
boro, it will be dead. Its skin will be
purple, burned and bruised. It will
be relegated to a bucket of chemical
solution in sorne back room of the
hospital.
• A frail, inexperienced 14-year–
old girl is taken advantage of sex–
ually by her stepfather; she has no
choice but to submit to his ad–
vances, even though she barely
comprehends what's going on. Two
months later she discovers she is
pregnant. At her age, labor prom–
ises to be a traumatic, frightening
experience. To prevent further psy–
chological, and possibly physi–
ological damage, a social worker
convinces her to get an abortion.
Twenty-four to ninety-six hours af–
ter she enters the hospital , the pos–
sible horror of an incestuously
caused pregnancy
is
over.
30
Killing another human lite for the sake of your
own convenience is murder.
lf
a fetus is another
human lite, then abortlon is murder.
(These descriptions are adapted
from
In Necessity and Sorrow: LiJe
and Death in an Abortion Hospital,
by Magna Denes.)
Make no mistake about it: Abor–
tion can be a devastating, agonizing
event in a woman's life. There are
many women who, if they carry
their pregnancy to term, face griev–
ous suffering. And yet abortion
might be murder. The thought of
burning skin off a fetus with satine
solution, or tearing it limb from
limb, as happens when suction is
used, is also horrifying.
Agonizing Dilemma
Precisely because abortion does
raise such excruciating problems,
the subject must be dealt with as
logicaUy as possible. A woman in
the agonizing dilemma of whether
to have an abortion wants to know
what is right; wants to know what
an abortion means in God's eyes.
lt
doesn't do any good to tell her ít's
an individual matter. That doesn't
help her if she wants to know when
right and wrong transcend being
just "individual matters."
Logically, a fetus is either a sepa–
rate human being from its mother,
or it isn't. If it isn't, then abortion,
given the acceptability of limiting
one's offspring, has no more moral
significance than clipping one's toe–
nails. But if it is, then abortion is the
killing, and therefore usually the
murder, of another human being. It
is this very lack of middle ground
which makes the subject of abortion
so volatile.
Since all civilized human beings
do not condone murder, abortion ís
an extremely serious issue, an issue
which turns on one question: ls the
fetus a separate human being? Once
we determine the answer to this
question, we can solve sorne of the
stickier gray areas which always
arise when we talk about abortion.
Suppose abortion is necessary to
save the life of the mother? If the
fetus is indeed human, then we can
answer this question by knowing
whether it is justifiable to kili in self–
defense; it is the fetus itself that
threatens the mother's life. In the
cases of rape or incest, the question
would be the rights of an innocent
bystander when tragedy occurs.
While these situations touch on
abortion, they are really different
subjects. Killing in self-defense and
the rights of bystanders in tragedies
are different from the main question
about abortion: ls it or is it not a
need to "termínate" a sepa rate
human being? If it is not, then no
amount of suffering or inconven–
ience, possibly short of life itself,
will justify such "termination," be–
cause this is the same standard we
now apply to human beings after·
they are born. We still condemn
parents who murder their children,
even if the existence of those chil–
dren is bringing about a great deal
of suffering to the family as a whole.
If the fetus is indeed a child, then
we must condemn abortion.
Burden of Proof
The burden of proof is clearly on
the shoulders of those who say that
abortion is permissible. There are
few human acts which are more
clearly and irrefutably wrong than
murder. With the possible exception
of torture, murder is perhaps the
The
PLAIN TRUTH August-september 1977