Emotions Run Deep on Abortion - Including my Emotions!

I research and study most political issues, cogitate, seeking some reasonable conclusion. Some issues, my gut gets. Research and logic are secondary.

In 1968, a female relative (call her Mary) wanted to end a pregnancy. She was in college and not intending to marry her boyfriend. As abortions were still illegal in New York, she asked if I could help. I was seeing an older woman of 26, who’d had a pregnancy ended by a noted doctor who passionately believed abortion should be legal. She said the procedure was incredibly simple.

It was very cloak-and-dagger. Mary had to stand on a certain street in some New Jersey town, wearing a tan trench coat and holding a Paris Match Magazine. A car took her away, and eventually brought her back.

Unfortunately, an irregularity in Mary’s cervix meant that the doctor couldn’t complete the abortion, but gave her some medicine that would complete it within a few days. Mary was obviously unwell, but visiting a hospital wasn’t feasible under the circumstances. That weekend in my girlfriend’s apartment was miserable for everyone. With a less responsible physician, or without our help, Mary might have died. Many did, from back--alley abortions or attempts at home remedies.

I’ll spare you further details, but since then I’ve hoped not to see more young women suffer as Mary did, simply to end an unwanted pregnancy. Imprudent fornication shouldn’t be a capital crime.

Roe v Wade was decided in 1973. Now, the present Supreme Court may trample all over precedent and legal norms to toss out that decision, not because the Constitution has changed, but because of justices’ political and/or religious beliefs.

An old New Mexico law makes abortion a felony. Polls show that majorities of U.S. citizens and New Mexicans do not agree that all abortion should be illegal, although many think abortion should be restricted or illegal late in a pregnancy. I’ve talked with anti-abortion activists, and understand their passion on the subject; but I don’t care to see doctors and pregnant women (or girls) jailed for something that’s been legal longer than they’ve been alive. Nor should anyone have an experience like Mary’s, or die trying to do what a doctor can (usually) accomplish safely.

If the Supreme Court permits states to outlaw abortion, New Mexicans should decide then what, if anything, we want to do. Folks on all sides should be heard, doctors and psychologists should testify, and the Legislature should make the best and most informed decision possible. We should NOT revert automatically (perhaps instantly) to a law based on long-ago norms. It’s 2021.

I know some Christians wish passionately to prohibit everyone from having abortions. (Other Christians believe that women should decide such things with their doctors.) We all should be heard. It’s a tough issue. People on all sides have strong emotions supporting their views.

There are solid grounds for rescinding New Mexico’s law. Our Constitution discourages legislation based on Christian or Islamic or other religious teachings. It recognizes people’s rights to pursue happiness, and at least some “zone of privacy” with which the government can’t interfere. It does not recognize fetuses as persons.

It’s odd that many who strenuously oppose a woman’s choice in this matter also oppose contraception and are the least willing to expend government funds on poor or troubled children.

Urge legislators to let New Mexican women make 21^st Century choices.

                                                     - 30 -

 

[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 14 February 2021, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG’s website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7) and KTAL-LP. (101.5 – http://www.lccommunityradio.org/), and is available on demand on KRWG’s site.]

[One point about criminalizing abortion is that it’s another “criminal law” that disproportionately harms the poor. The wealthy will always get abortions. I remember a silent film from around 1914 in which a crusading district attorney arrests an abortionist, only to learn that his wife and many of her friends have availed themselves of the man’s services. Folks with plenty of money usually can avail themselves of safe and comfortable abortions, even when it’s illegal. Poor folks often lack not only the financial resources but the contacts to make such arrangements – or, say, travel to Mexico. As with medical services generally, they get the less safe and sanitary situations, or none at all.]

[I do feel a little wrong in commenting at all. Men should not telling women what to do, and I am a man; but I’m also not telling anyone what to do in his or her personal life. I’m arguing that whatever you or I might think ab out abortion, even if we believe our God loathes the practiced, that is not a solid basis for a criminal law; and, of course, I’m arguing here that whatever law New Mexico would make in 2021 or 2022, if the Supreme Court tosses Roe v. Wade on the ash-heap, the state should make in the 21^st Century, not revive from more than a half-century ago. 

New Mexico’s first law prohibiting abortions was passed in 1907, and then amended in 1969. Under the old law, it is a fourth-degree felony to perform an abortion, and a second-degree felony if the woman dies during the procedure. There are exceptions for rape, birth defects and to protect the health of the mother, but all abortions must be approved in writing by a hospital board.]                                                                                 

[I have some lingering hope that these folks on the U.S. Supreme Court will not do away with Roe v. Wade, although they will at least weaken it with a thousand more cuts. I know what they’ve said and written, but I can’t rule out the possibility that in office some respect for law, and the process they’re supposed to be a part of, will deter them. But I ain’t bettin’ on that.]