The Latterday Scarlet Letter

Abortion is perhaps the most emotionally charged and polarizing social issues facing our country. (*some would argue that gay marriage is close behind - but it lacks the history) I attended a session yesterday lead by one of only three providers in Utah that preform abortions. He proposed that there were some universal truths related to abortion in the US:

1) It is legal - of course there are caveats and limitations...but legal nonetheless

2) It is safe - contrary to some propaganda, those who have abortions have no increased incidence of infertility, no damage that prohibits future conceptions and no long-term physical sequelae associated to the termination.

3) It requires a pregnant woman - I suggested this one and when I initially raised this point in the discussion I first said, "abortion requires a woman and a fetus". He responded, "define fetus". Fetus: The unborn offspring from the end of the 8th week after conception (when the major structures have formed) until birth. Up until the eighth week, the developing offspring is called an embryo. With this information I then changed it to, "abortion requires a woman and a group of differentiating cells" to which he clarified further and called it a pregnant woman. Pregnancy: a fertilized egg that has implanted. I conceded.

4) No one ever WANTS one: An abortion that is. Someone argued this, using as an example the women who choose to use abortions as their primary method of birth control. The physician argued that among all the patients that he has treated, even repeat visitors, not one has come to him without heavily weighing her options. He said again, "no one ever wants one".

5) Abortions are common: Of all the developed countries, where do you think that US falls for number of abortions per year? That is right - the US has the number one abortion rate of all developed countries. There are 1.4 MILLION abortions every year in this country. 40% of the world's population live in a country where abortions are legal and I have experienced first hand treating women post-abortion in countries that have not legalized abortions. (believe me, that is a much worse plight) Abortions are common - more common than breast cancer. (*In 2007, an estimated 178,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer were diagnosed among women, as well as an estimated 62,030 additional cases of in situ breast cancer - a pittance compared to abortions)

6)Abortions are PREVENTABLE: This is the point that I found most interesting. This physician that preforms abortions was adamant that more must be done to PREVENT abortions from even having to be done. How? By prevention of unplanned pregnancies. 50% of all pregnancies in the US each year are unplanned. There is a percentage of unplanned pregnancies that can be reasonably, although inconvenient, dealt with, but then there are those which can not. If we more aggresively prevented unwanted pregnancies, such as other developed countries who have a much lower abortion prevalance, perhaps abortions would be rare events rather than "common".

This brings up interesting questions. Without any empirical evidence, in fact strong empirical evidence to suggest otherwise, a large, politically powerful segment of society believe that contraception availability is linked to promiscuity. I think this perhaps exposes why we do not have a "walk for the cure" for abortion...because it is related to sex. 1.4 million vs. 220,000???

Here is my thought, and please weigh in on the matter - promiscuity, in many cultures is judged more heavily upon the woman...and has been throughout time. Pregnancy, unwanted pregnancy such as in a teenage girl, is a sign that she has been having sex. That pregnant belly sticks out like a scarlet letter. I have heard some either say outloud or with insinuated sentiment, "that baby is her punishment for having sex. She made the choice, she has to deal with the consequences". I won't disagree with consequence, but that runs far deeper than physical manifestations of "sin". Nathaniel Hawthorne captured the hell of secret sin illustrating the suffering of Arthur Dimmesdale despite Hester Prynne bearing the physical "scarlet letter" her whole life.

So my question is this - why is it that we don't fight to protect women from unwanted pregnancies? Is it because she is a girl having sex and she should have to pay for her sin? HPV is another example - boys are the assymptomatic vector. Girls get the cancer. Why is it that we don't fight to ensure every girl (and boy for that matter) in the country gets the Gardasil vaccine to protect her from cervical cancer? What if boys were getting penile cancer? Would that make a subconcious difference in policy?