The parents’ sociological, financial, and emotional situations, along with their relative maturity, self-reliance and support network, must provide the justification for keeping or aborting the yet-potential life in the womb.
True Story: Early in her pregnancy, my close friend’s wife was informed that the twins she was carrying showed strong signs of congenital birth defects--and that medical abortion might be the best choice. “God will provide,” the parents said. At 24 weeks, the twins were born with dozens of complications, including one whose bones would break if someone picked him up; he had numerous broken bones and suffered terribly. “God will provide,” they said. Doctors, nurses, social workers, and others (including me) recommended that the children be allowed to pass on peacefully, in order to forgo a lifetime of myriad, and in many cases unforeseeable, difficulties for the entire family. “God will provide,” they said. And so it came to pass.
However, in their case, all of the predicted challenges—and more—proved more than any of them could bear. Lacking universal health care, the medical bills kept coming. The physical care was endless; the financial burdens of home health care were astronomical; sleep was a rare option; maintaining a job became impossible; and their marriage became untenable. God seemed no longer to be providing . . . The wife found another man, the husband suffered mental collapse and inevitably lost his job. Not long after, he shot dead his wife, her boyfriend, and himself—as the children (with no one left to care for them) slept upstairs. I cannot say where the children are today (but, despite my atheism, I do hope that god is providing).
All of this could have been avoided if religious, societal, medical, and governmental forces were aligned to worry more about the living and less about zygotes and fetuses. No, I do not recognize fledgling life as life, and I never shall. Even though I can imagine many parents throwing themselves in front of a bus to save their children--or depriving themselves to feed their poor children--I do not believe they should be forced to give up their lives and their futures for the unborn. “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”
The rationale is clear, especially if you are a man: Simply ask yourself how you’d feel if you woke up tomorrow to discover that your "lovemaking" had left you pregnant—and your life would never be the same--and especially not what you may have hoped it would be. You’d be on the next flight to the abortion clinic. Now imagine that all the clinics are closed—and your neighbors deem you immoral for “opening your legs.” Worse, they can now earn monetary rewards for reporting your backstreet-abortion efforts to the authorities. I’ll bet more men would be shooting themselves.
So, in short, worry about your own damned bodies, and your own moral code, and leave parenting (and the decision not to parent) to the parents. For, in all too many cases, God does not provide--and neither do you, and neither does society. And, even if you're convinced that your god has the moral authority to prescribe what's good for "human" life, you do not have that authority. I know a dozen women who had abortions when they were young, all of whom had children later in life and became wonderful parents.
