Murder Ink

The first time I saw it happen was in the Fall of 1963. I was in the 7th grade and not quite 12 years old. The girl who had the locker above mine disappeared. I never saw her again, not in church, not in school, not around town. No one said a word. Her picture was never on a milk carton. After that it became more common. By the ninth grade, several a year were gone. By the 10th grade, they stopped disappearing forever. After a while, you'd see them around town again, at a bus stop, walking down the street. They looked older and didn't dress as nice. They kept their eyes down and wouldn't wave back. In the 11th grade, they'd talk to you when they came back. they'd be working around town at little jobs or attending continuation ed classes. Sometimes they'd talk about what happened to them. Sometimes the stories were even funny. Still, you almost never saw the baby. In College, you'd know before they disappeared. Their behavior was manic. They'd go to parties and drink too much and end up crying. Then they'd pack up their stuff and move out of the dorm. Then they legalized abortion and it all stopped. The clinic with no sign out front opened. The local Catholic St. Jude Home for Girls closed.

You hear a lot from the pro lifers about how abortion is murder. It's a sin. It"s not safe for Doctors who perform abortions to admit it in public. It's not uncommon for them to wear body armor to work and back. I think they ought to give them medals and put up statues of them in public parks. I'm not in favor of abortion. I think as a society we need to do everything we can to prevent it, but you have to have lived in America the way it used to be to feel the way I feel. No one has the right to force a pregnant girl to carry to term. I don't care if it's murder or not. A woman has a right to choose!

Why would anyone want to take the opinion of the religious community seriously about an issue of morality anyway? On the other great moral issue of our time they were dead wrong. It's true that the church was active in promoting the cause of civil rights in this country. The black church. Churches were all segregated in those days. Come to think of it , they still are for the most part. Come to think of it, it was the Christian community that drove young girls out of society during the days before legalized abortion. They are the ones who want to restigmatize unwed mothers today.

RU 486 was developed decades ago. It's safe, effective and widely used around the world. It has never been widely available in this country because of the controversial way in which it works. It prevents the implantation of the fertilized egg onto the uterine wall. It was instantly branded the "abortion pill" because of this by the Religious right. Now, largely in response to this complaint a new drug with the trade name of Plan B has been developed. This drug prevents the ovary from releasing an egg and makes eggs that are released unlikely to be fertilized. Gee, what could be wrong with that?

George Bush and his nominee to head the FDA, today voiced their opinion today that Plan B should not be made available to minors. Presumably, this is because somewhere in his philosophy of a "Culture of Life", there is a subtext that precludes young people from having sex. Of course they can get the pill, they just have to get a signed release from their parents to present at the pharmacy. I can just see it now, "Mommy, Daddy, about yesterday, after my quinceanera, my boyfriend and I had unprotected sex, could you please sign this release form so I can get the morning after pill", Yeah, right. There's a scenario that will be played out in living rooms all over America.

You can't have it both ways. If you don't want a lot of abortion/murder going on in society, you have to do every thing possible to keep these girls from getting pregnant in the first place. Education, birth control, whatever it takes. Stress abstinence all you want, but it's not the answer. I realize that all of the juice has dried up in your pasty, shriveled, God fearing gonads, but try and remember back in the day. Young people have sex. That's what they do. It's the first thing that happens after young people start to honestly express their emotions to each other and whether you like it or not it's completely natural. Growing up female in America is a far different experience than it was a couple of generations ago, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that they all don't start to get pregnant as they emotionally mature. It's not going to change, so get over it.

Women make up over half of those graduating from college. They make up an even higher percentage of those going on to professional schools. Things have sure changed. Must be all that home schooling and abstinence training. I would use this opportunity, as I usually do in my posts to call George Bush a scumbag, but I guess he doesn't believe in those either.