wishing away abortion

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jul 23, 2005

The Massachusetts Catholic Conference, having failed to persuade the state's (mostly Catholic) legislators to oppose a bill that require hospitals to provide the "morning-after" pill to women who report being raped, now hopes the Governor (a Mormon) will veto it. The Boston Globe, with its usual concern for accurate reporting, explains the critical dispute:

The emergency contraception pill, called Plan B, prevents the hormonal surge that prompts the ovary to release an egg. It must be taken within 72 hours of intercourse, but cannot terminate an existing pregnancy. Still, there is considerable disagreement whether the pill is a contraceptive or abortion.

Now if the facts are as the Globe presents them, the argument by the Mass. Catholic Conference is nonsense. If the pill "cannot terminate an existing pregnancy," it cannot cause an abortion. QED.

But the facts rarely are as the Globe presents them, particularly when the issue is abortion. If the woman's ovary has already released an egg, and it has been fertilized, the effect of the pill is to prevent the implantation of that fertilized egg in the uterus. So the fertilized egg-- a tiny human life-- dies. That's called abortion.

The Globe, following the line put forward by proponents of the morning-after pill, dodges this logic by saying that a pregnancy doesn't begin until the embryo is implanted in the uterus. But why stop there? If you're going to ignore the obvious scientific evidence that a human life begins at conception, why arbitrarily set the starting point at implantation? Why not say-- as abortion advocates often seem to be saying-- that pregnancy begins when the mother decides that she wants to be pregnant?

That way, any abortion that takes place before the woman wants to be pregnant is not really an abortion; it's a form of contraception. And-- presto!-- the abortion debate is over!