The sanctity of life

Some things in this country never seem to change.

We've been arguing about birth control and abortion for over fifty years, and, unless popular mythology falls by the wayside, it looks like we'll never stop.

One group of people deplores all the daily gun deaths, the weekly mass shootings, the wars of aggression and greed, and the slow but sure murder of the poor and disadvantaged by legal robbery to fatten the already thriving powerful and rich. These deplorers of daily gun deaths are usually the same people who value a woman's right to choose when to become pregnant and whether to carry a pregnancy to term.

Another group of people, in apparent opposition to the other, cares only about the unborn. To them, children are women's proper punishment for having sex. They insist that women go through the pain of childbirth as many times in their lives as possible to expiate Eve's sin. I guess Jesus' death wasn't payment enough. These champions of only the unborn will kill or applaud the murder of already-living people to prove how serious they are about the sanctity of life.

Excuse me while I go duct-tape my head.

Yes, the champions of the unborn are all about guns and wars and killing to show that killing is wrong. They practically celebrate when an unarmed Black kid in an inner city is gunned down by police or a Muslim anywhere is executed. They excuse themselves by saying, as God did of the Canaanites and Hitler did of the Jews, that the victim deserved it. It was a thug (Black) or a terrorist (Muslim) or a slut (woman) or a slut-loving baby killer (abortion provider). Yessiree, those are "good deaths." You see, only the unborn are innocent; once you breathe air for the first time, you are guilty of original sin and are thus fair game for the slaughter.

But what about the people who champion everyone but the unborn?

Nobody I've ever spoken to who supports a woman's right to choose thinks abortion is "great." Not one. Every one--to the last woman or man--will tell you that, even though it's not something to be sought for fun, as religious conservatives seem to think women do, it is often the best solution to a bad situation. Every last one will say that it is not up to him or her to decide for the next person what to do with his or her body or life. According to a recent study, the vast majority, 95%, of women who have had abortions "do not regret" it (more quote the figure as 95%, so I think Daily Beast's 99% was a typo).

It is important to realize that a conception, a fertilized egg, is not a human being. Taken out of the woman, a fertilized egg cannot survive on its own. A fertilized egg is not even a pregnancy unless it implants in the uterine wall. At least two thirds of all fertilized eggs fail to implant and are discharged during menses.

A Tea Party Christian roundly told me that at least 80% of fertilized eggs do not implant, yet, in the next breath, he still proclaimed the fertilized egg to be equivalent to a fully-formed adult human being.

Wait, I need more duct tape....

Of the fertilized eggs that do implant, 31% spontaneously miscarry.

And there are also all the stillbirths:

But stillbirths—when a fetus dies after 20 or more weeks of gestation—have remained relatively steady—and account for almost as many deaths as those of babies who die before their first birthday. About one in every 160 pregnancies in the U.S. ends in a stillbirth, which adds up to about 26,000 each year nationwide."

So not even a pregnancy is a human being. A fertilized egg is not a baby. An implanted embryo is not a baby. A fetus is not a baby. Only after it breaths air for the first time (and thus becomes guilty of original sin) it is an actual baby.

The best we can say is that a fertilized egg has the potential to become a human being. A pregnancy has the potential to become a human being. But the woman is already a full-fledged human being...well, not according to Christians or their Bible, which is why we're having this conversation in the first place. But that's another discussion. Let's assume, as rational reasonable people the world round do, that women are fully human, equal to men. This gives them the right to decide what happens to their bodies--the same right men take for granted. We must also take into account that pregnancy isn't a simple process, like clipping your toenails. It's a whole lot more than the "ten minutes of pain" some religious conservatives oversimplify it to be. Pregnancy changes women's bodies for life. It can cause life-changing complications in women. It can even kill them:

The number of women in the U.S. who die in childbirth is nearing the highest rate in a quarter-century. An estimated 18.5 mothers died for every 100,000 births in 2013, compared with 7.2 in 1987. 

The Post reports that this translates to, quote, “a woman giving birth here is twice as likely to die than in Saudi Arabia and three times as likely than in the United Kingdom.”

Worldwide, WHO cites sobering statistics:

In 2015, an estimated 303 000 women will die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth. In addition, for every woman who dies in childbirth, dozens more suffer injury, infection or disease.

But nobody says anything about pro-life, abortion, or the sanctity of life better than George Carlin.