The Highway.com

On January 22, 1973, Roe v. Wade, the Supreme recognized a woman’s right to obtain an abortion without fear of the law.  Twenty five years later, Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe, offered “a sincere prayer that there would be no 30th anniversary.”  She did not get her wish.

Where Do We Go From Here?

(January 22,2003)

After thirty years an issue which has torn our country apart on virtually all levels appears no closer to a resolution. Two opposing camps clash, sometimes violently, over a routine medical procedure that has enjoyed legal protection, perfecting itself, minimizing risks. 

The only thing that has become clear is that neither side will yield, and  both fail to see that coat hangers and back alley butchers are a thing of the past.

I too lament thirty years of passage, but  for very different reasons. Roe v. Wade was supposed to give women a choice. It offered only damage control, a band-aid on a wound that needs to be cleaned and stitched. Sometimes the wounds never heal. The right to life movement was supposed to make us see the value of unborn life. It failed to convince 38 million women to not abort. It failed to provide a viable option for 38 million fetuses to flourish. It failed to involve 38 million men. For all that both promised, neither really delivered, and women cross the picket lines daily feeling abortion the only choice left.

Roe v. Wade offered our nation a chance to really examine who we are. It laid bare human sexuality in a frightening new way, challenging us to become more responsible. It called on us to act like adults, yet many still act like children. We cling to the mysteries and romance of a very powerful life altering experience, then wonder what happened when reality sinks in.  We want to be free to explore, but forget that some explorations end in disaster. We try to invent ways we can have it both ways, yet never really consider that nothing is ever foolproof. We expect morality and religious value systems of old to control and contain us, but if they didn’t work then, how can we expect them to now?

Above all, we do not seriously discuss sex until it is too late.

In the end, women enter clinics and adoption agencies, or face economic and social ruin raising a child alone. In the end, the child is handicapped by his mother’s finances, denied what many take for granted and the cycle repeats. It loses its heritage, its roots, or never gets to live at all. It, our language commonly reminds us, has always been treated as “it“. Sadly, in most cases, the men are nowhere to be found when it truly counts.

Men are all to eager to be there before conception, yet many fall away after.  Abortion absolves us, women carrying the burden of guilt. We do not have to face any real responsibility, a checkbook being the laws typical answer. We are commonly raised to think ourselves unqualified, to objectify, divide, conquer, and move on.

Abortion as a medical procedure is too well established to just go away. Roe v. Wade challenged us to finally address age old issues. Are we as a nation up to the challenge? Are we going to let the next thirty years be like the first, or will we reshape our value systems, our education,our laws to reflect a real choice among options where abortion is not the least damaging solution?

The solution lies not in debating a legal choice, but in creating a society where every child is wanted, and adults act responsibly, a procreative expression of love taken seriously, discussed openly. In my humble opinion, the number of abortions would drastically drop if it was not the last resort for a society that refuses to admit it is having sex.

Where do we go from here? Maybe it is time to learn from what we have been doing and finally make a real choice.