A wise adage counsels us to be careful about what we wish for.
A companion to this adage advises us to be careful about what we choose. The mythological figure, the Sybil, asked Apollo for eternal life. He granted her what she wished for, but her wish did not include eternal youth. The Cumaean prophetess regretted her request more and more as she continued to shrink with age. According to the story, at the end of a thousand years, there was nothing left of the Sybil but her voice saying, “I want to die.”
The perfect irony was completed when, after choosing eternal life, she wanted nothing more than to die. She came to long for the very opposite of what she had originally chosen.
Being “pro-choice” is similarly ill-fated, for it contains not only abortion but other realities which, even to the pro-abortion mindset, are most undesirable. A certain woman, whose name we need not mention, suffered a miscarriage five days before her delivery date when her estranged husband punched her in the stomach. The woman was further aggrieved when she learned that the law did not protect her son from this kind of assault, and that women’s groups would not support her quest for a state law that would prescribe punishment for such a killer. The pro-choice position had created a conundrum: Why is it acceptable for the mother, but not the father, to kill their unborn child? Can “choice” and “equality” be made to harmonize?
Another example of the undesirable factors that the pro-choice philosophy contains is presently a subject for political bantering in Canada. According to a poll commissioned by LifeCanada, 92% of Canadians want sex-selected abortions banned. But Canada is anything but democratic on this point. Politicians fear that attributing sex (male or female) to an unborn child will humanize the child and make abortion begin to look like killing a human being rather than simply making a “choice.” In addition, a report in the Canadian Medical Journal called for measures to counteract the widespread practice of aborting unborn babies specifically because they are female.
Mark Warawa, a Member of Parliament for the Progressive Conservative Party, has filed Motion 408 which reads: “That the House condemn discrimination against females occurring through sex-selected pregnancy termination.” The motion does not aim to protect males, which is either an oversight or another example of sex discrimination. Warawa was prompted to file his motion after learning that a CBC sting operation revealed that roughly three quarters of twenty-two facilities it visited used ultra-sound screening for the purpose of setting up sex-selected abortions.
A statement from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s secretary made it clear that the government “is opposed to opening this debate.” New Democrat leader Thomas Mulcair promised that his entire caucus would vote against the motion, charging that the Harper government is trying to ban abortion through the back door. Apparently, Mulcair’s concept of the “back door” is looking at reality straight in the eye.
Combating sexism, discrimination, and violence against the females are three of the basic planks in the feminist platform. But in choosing “choice,” feminists have chosen an umbrella principle that includes and affirms the very sexism, discrimination, and violence they allegedly seek to eradicate.
At the same time, all of Canada’s federal parties, though they have denounced sex-selected abortions, do not want to do anything about it. They are steadfastly unwilling to translate their verbal opposition into political action. Another consequence of abortion is that it turns politicians into hypocrites.
Pro-abortion advocates have not been wise, or even logical, concerning what they have chosen. Their thin justification for unregulated abortion is simply “choice,” because they cannot find a better reason. Like the Sybil, they end up affirming the very thing they sought to avoid.
The confusion and contradictions that abound concerning sex-selected abortions result from a denial of truth. Abortion is certainly an act of violence. Sex-selected abortion is surely sexist, since it kills on the basis of one’s sex. It is also inherently discriminatory insofar as it denies the unborn child the right to continue living. It discriminates against the child in the womb simply because it is not yet born. One cannot be pro-abortion and against violence, sexism, and discrimination at the same time. Abortion unleashes a host of other undesirable factors that are damaging to marriage and society, as well as to the unborn.
Statistics Canada has confirmed that between 2000 and 2009, 491 aborted babies were born alive and later died. Despite thousands of complaints from Canadian citizens, the Harper government has chosen to ignore the issue.
“Choosing choice,” as pro-choice advocates like to put it, is like operating a dangerous vehicle while wearing a self-imposed blindfold. It can and does have calamitous effects. The blindfold must be removed so that the truth can be seen and the calamities avoided.
Dr. Donald DeMarco is a Senior Fellow of Human Life International. Doctor DeMarco is a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and he is Professor Emeritus at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario and an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College & Seminary in Cromwell, CT.
He is the author of 22 books, including; Architects of the Culture of Death, The Many Faces of Virtue, The Heart of Virtue, and New Perspectives on Contraception. He has authored several hundred articles in scholarly journals and in anthologies, and articles and essays appearing in other journals and magazines and in newspapers; and innumerable book reviews in a variety of publications.
His education includes: B.S. Stonehill College, North Easton, MA 1959 (General Science); A.B. Stonehill College, 1961 (Philosophy); Gregorian University, Rome, Italy, 1961-2 (Theology); M.A. St. John’s University, Jamaica, NY, 1965 (Philosophy); and Ph.D. At. John’s Univ., 1969 (Philosophy). His Master’s dissertation was “The Basic Concept in Hegel’s Dialectical Method” and his Doctor’s dissertation was “The Nature of the Relationship between the Mathematical and the Beautiful in Music”.
He is married to Mary Arendt DeMarco and they have five children.
Print 
PDF 