On Abortion

by Armando Simón

I have mixed feelings on abortion, a red-hot topic to many persons across the political and moral spectrum. For starters, I wish everyone would call it for what it is—baby killing—instead of using the euphemism “abortion.” For another, I recognize the fact that for millennia, many women have killed their own children (I have never held the illusion that women are morally superior to men). So in a sense, abortion, i.e., murder, should be legalized just as theft, i.e., alimony, has been legalized.

Can you detect my cynicism?

A while back, I had a calm discussion with an individual who is pro-life and very religious, and I posed to him this real-life problem: if a college girl gets pregnant, she is faced with two alternatives. She either gets an abortion, or, she keeps the baby. If she chooses the latter, her college career is effectively derailed. Having a baby and raising the child takes an enormous amount of time, money and effort, as everyone who has had children will readily affirm. It is not something as simple and transient as doing the laundry. What did he offer to convince the girl to not have an abortion? Prayer? That prayer would result in a pile of money suddenly appearing on the table—poof!—followed by a British nanny knocking at the door, offering her services for free? He just sat there, gulping air like a fish out of water, with no answer.

I then suggested that if the pro-lifers were serious about their mission, then what they should do is establish a support system to help such women. This, of course, would mean that a lot of the money that is scammed from parishioners and is being funneled to ministers like Olsen and Hagee to maintain their mansions and their private jets and their children’s mansions would have to take a hit. And we all know that’s not going to happen.

I bring this up because recently a study has emerged that supports what I suggested.  It found that the majority (60%) of women who were asked about their abortions would not have had them, had they received support. Some of them did not even want to have an abortion but had to for financial reasons.

So I wonder if the pro-life movement is now going to change their tactics.

Don’t bet on it.

And, for the record, decades ago, at different times, two girlfriends whom I loved had abortions, contrary to my wishes, and each time it felt like a piece of my heart had been cut out.

Armando Simón is a retired psychologist, author of Very Peculiar Stories.