July 14, 2023
I\’m covering plenty of old ground in this incarnation of The Doctor\’s Inn — but Holly Todd\’s recent, illustrated take on the topic of abortion (in my no longer beloved L.A. Times [I cancelled my subscription — a story for another day]) got me exploring a new line of thinking. Holly poses the question of \”What if abortion is a matter of self defense?\” akin to a policeperson killing someone and rationalizing it by saying s/he feared for her/his life.
Heady stuff — but even Holly leaves the onus of the act on the woman.
Perhaps if males who didn\’t intend to take care of their progeny were sterilized before doing time for criminal neglect (this would entail having a breeding license on the books) — we\’d have fewer abortions.
Why do men continue to get off the hook with regards to unwanted pregnancy? We all know that it takes two to tango! But SCOTUS and other adherents to Catholic doctrine continue to empower irresponsible males to plant their seeds and never have to worry how the garden grows.
Lauren Boebert\’s son will be an interesting test case to follow. Lauren\’s mother bore Lauren at age 18 and Lauren birthed her son — who is 17 — when she was 18. An obviously horny family (mimicking the gods?) when we look at this generational pattern of unprotected, premarital sex.
Throughout history — women pregnant out of wedlock were either put to death or stigmatized (Recall The Scarlet Letter) — until such women learned that by saying they were carrying Zeus\’ or Jehovah\’s child (Zeus came to them in a golden shower) they were protected. So, even the real sperm donor was kept in check by this maneuver because he didn\’t dare admit that he was the actual father (good ol\’ Roger Chillingworth).
I\’m thinking that the first mammalian abortions must have been the re-absorption of the fetus(es) into the mother\’s system in the wake of detrimental environmental conditions that would have limited the offspring\’s ability to survive. I have read that rabbits can still do this (as well as other mammals that I don\’t know about) and I\’m betting that homo sapiens also had this ability once upon a time.
Our Sapien miscarriages might be the next step in environmental aborting whereby the fetus is literally ejected from the body that hosts it because conditions such food deprivation or drugs or extreme anxiety make the womb a toxic experience.
In time, women found doctors or mid-wives who could forcibly remove the fetus from the womb: then the woman needed only to come up with a convenient excuse for the \”miscarriage.\”
Of course, every now-and-then came a male who attempted to do the right thing and took care of the woman and the child — but this model was a rarity.
The Widow Jane said to Dick \”You know this baby I\’m carrying is yours.\” To which Dick replied, \”Yeah, so what?\” Well, the so of the what — said Jane — is that I\’ll need your help raising this child. To which Dick probably retorted with a \”I must be traveling on.\”
At this point Jane (who had already birthed two children) thought: I\’m not going through the 9- and-a-1/2 month thang again.
I recently heard a statistic that suggested that 53% of all abortions are accomplished with a pill — but even this intervention is in danger of being withdrawn in certain Red states (threatening to take THEM back to medieval and frontier abortions).
So, back to my earlier suggestion: What if pregnant women reported the father, who, after a confirmed DNA match was given a choice to contribute $280,000.00 to the child\’s upbringing through high school (the going rate), or, be sterilized and do some prison time?
If it were illegal to fornicate without a license — surely this unwanted baby making would stop?! It remains easier to bring life into this world than getting a driver\’s license…but this could all be water-under-the-bridge with the new \”over the counter\” birth control pill about to hit the market. Let\’s hope it\’s affordable! If it is, no one will need a breeding license — unless you want to raise a child under impossible circumstances…