Seems to me it”s a fine time for a conference.
A recent letter to the editor lamented that, in 2003 “we lost 1,287,000 babies to abortion,” that “93 percent of all abortions occur for social reasons,” and that the aborted children “have no say whatsoever on their fate” (“Fighting the wrong war,” Shalese Larsen, Readers” Views, Oct. 31).
Elsewhere that day”s paper reported a 23-year-old mother was arrested “on suspicion of murdering her 8-year-old son, whose body showed signs of having been repeatedly whipped, burned and cut, police said.
“The mother told police,” the AP Dispatch went on to say, “she had punished the boy for misbehaving.”
One question the conference might tackle, perhaps, is: “Does a parent have the inherent right to torture and murder one”s own child?” Suppose you were a newborn with a mother who decidedly didn”t want you (let”s even say she hated you — and besides that — didn”t know a thing about parenting!) — what alternatives would you have? (List six).
Or what about: “If a 15-year-old is raped — is it society”s duty to see to it, no matter what, that the girl raises the child?”
How about people who smoke and drink, or use drugs during pregnancy?
Or even: “As society overflows with more and more graphic sexual stimuli (especially on TV, which Oprah calls “the other mother”), how effective is the widespread call for young people to abstain from sex?”
(I”ve heard it said that even if both parents are totally in favor of having a child, it is a boundless, utterly demanding, lifetime commitment.)
As it stands, our divorce rate is over half, and 2 million teens are getting pregnant every year.
In that situation — what does a “right to life” really mean?
We could discuss all that, share our views.
Put me down for the conference.
Norman Fleishman
Lakeport
