Abortion abused as a means of contraception

Arizona Daily Wildcat Jennifer McKean

For a moment, forget whether you believe that abortion is right or wrong. Think about the control that society has over rights given to us by law. What if a situation were to get out of hand? What if one court ruling ages ago cannot prepare us for a chang e in times and new intellectual perspectives?

When I was 15 years old and nothing if not impressionable, I knew three different girls my age, coming from good families, that were using abortion as a method of birth control. It's as simple as that, they thought. "If we have another mistake, I'll just get the $500 from my parents this time." I remember thinking to myself, how could a baby ever not be perfect and precious?

I was young and confused. I thought they were selfish and ignorant. Why were their lives any more real than the life inside of them? Because they were bigger and more powerful? Because they could easily speak and act irresponsibly?

Abortion, like all issues, loves its special circumstances. We rely on them to make excuses for things that deep inside our hearts, we know might be wrong. What do we do when there is no circumstance? There is no sob story, no reasonable explanation. What then?

Is aborting an unborn child as acceptable to pro-choicers when it is done to prevent a mere inconvenience? I don't know the answer. I can't pretend to know what goes on in other people's minds. Research says that many women who have abortions do so believ ing that the individual inside of them isn't alive until the precise moment of birth.

What I do know is that every person, male or female, young or old, handicapped or whole, has a valued life given to him by God. But society is changing. Values for what constitutes a "reasonable" abortion are undergoing significant change.

In the Supreme Court case Conn v. Conn, a husband won the right to bar his wife from having an abortion. She defied the court injunction and had the abortion with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Her lawyer stated in legal papers that "she did what she had to do to protect both her physical and emotional health." People began to sympathize with the woman. In reality, court documents showed that she had an abortion "because she had planned a trip t o the beach and wanted to look good in her new bathing suit!"

European investigators recently discovered a hideous and prevalent practice among female track and field athletes. Coaches found that early pregnancy would enhance the athletic performance of their female competitors in many events. They were being artifi cially inseminated by their coaches, competing in their events for the five to seven weeks they were pregnant, then traveling to local abortion mills to kill their unborn children.

"The problem has become so widespread now that my colleagues and I last week made a rule never to help a woman athlete if she wants to get pregnant purely and simply to win a race," said a gynecology professor in Geneva.

Studies show that the highest percentage of abortions in this country are given to single, white women between the ages of 20-24. 13.6 percent of the women having abortions have already aborted two or more fetuses, and studies show that 37 percent, or 555 ,000 abortions each year, are due to women not using contraception; they are, therefore, depending on abortion as a method of birth control.

Though the majority of abortions take place in the early stages of pregnancy, 8.4 percent of all abortions are between the sixth and seventh month of pregnancy. By that time, the baby's development is thriving, his brain is visible and electrically active , he can feel pain and he is beginning to hear, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This year more than 1.5 million unborn babies will be aborted. That is 4,250 today, 177 this hour and probably five since you began reading this paper.

It's easy enough these days to say "it wasn't the right time" and have no further questions asked. If now isn't the time, maybe the time will never be right for that woman. Maybe that shouldn't be her choice.

If a young woman disrespects life enough to abort her own baby for essentially no reason at all, then how could she ever be a parent? A parent loves and cherishes the innocence they have created.

As a reporting intern at a Washington D.C. newspaper, I attended the March for Life rally there last spring, marking the 24th anniversary of the legalization of abortion. The vivid picture of 5-year-old Leah Maher, holding up a larger-than-life sign sayin g, "ABORTION IS MURDER," remains in my heart and in my mind.

The debate over abortion is admittedly complex: it has medical, ethical, theological, social and personal aspects. I doubt the battle will ever cease entirely, but if both sides of the spectrum can someday discuss the control and abuse of abortion, instea d of its immediate implications, we can spare the pain of both the unborn children and their mothers.

Jennifer McKean is a junior majoring in journalism.