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Sparkle (2)
Every year, on the anniversary of Roe v Wade, I set out to share my opinion. Every year I chicken out. I know my opinion is sure to anger both my pro-life and my pro-choice friends, many of whom see things through a black-and-white, all-or-nothing lens. As in so many things in life’s journey, this issue a complex one.
I am pro-life; probably more pro-life than most. Life is good. Life is precious. I wish all people to have a full and meaningful life. I’m in favor abolishing death sentences; I wish for an end to war. I’m against suicides, assisted or otherwise. I pray no woman seeks abortion as an answer to pregnancy. I’m not naive; I know that not all pregnancies are planned and not all babies are born perfect. Still, I believe personal struggle is the root of human strength; as Budha expresses in his “Four Nobel Truths,” life means suffering.
My first-born son was three-month-old when the US Supreme Court made the Roe v Wade decision January 22, 1973; he’s thirty-eight years old now. So much has changed in that time. Back then, I heard my baby’s heartbeat through a stethoscope near the end of the first trimester; felt a flutter of life sometime during the second trimester; and I was told I had a son on the day he was born. Back then, a preemie had little chance of surviving because the lungs lacked surfactants allowing them to expand and the baby to breathe. Back then, in utero diagnosis was next to impossible: ultra-sound was in its infancy and amniocentesis was dangerous. Back then, pregnancy outside of marriage was a shameful secret. Back then, abortion was illegal in most state, including the one I lived in.
Today, I know a grandchild is on the way before I would have even suspected my own pregnancy. Today, I hear and see my unborn grandson in stereo and three-dimensional color earlier than I heard the first heartbeat of my unborn child. Today, with medical treatment, a preemie of less than two pounds can flourish. Today, blood tests from the pregnant woman, and in utero testing can diagnose or predict birth defects. In utero treatment is not only possible, but common. Today, a healthy family can come in a variety of configurations, in addition to the traditional married man and woman. Today, abortion is legal in all 50 states.
This year, on the eve of the anniversary of Roe v Wade, I dug up the Supreme Court Opinion delivered by Justice Blackmun. It is time I understand the prevailing wisdom of that time, deliberated and based on Constitutional soundness. What I found surprised me; perhaps you will feel the same.
The Court thoroughly reviewed abortion laws as far back as ancient Greece, as well as the Hippocratic Oath, which stands, from that ancient time until now, as a standard for medical professionals. The Opinion makes a point that the Supreme Court is not equipped to decide when an individual life begins or when a soul is infused into the individual, that conception is a process, not a moment in time, and that the notion of the individual changes with advancements in science and technology. Religious leaders’ opinion, including that of my Catholic Church’s that an individual’s life begins at conception is a relatively modern concept.
The Hippocratic Oath forbids abortion: “I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion,” and “I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy.” One of my favorite psalms, celebrating the uniqueness of the individual speaks of a process of becoming:
“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body, and knit them together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex. It is amazing to think about…You were there while I was being formed in utter seclusion. You saw me before I was born…” (Psalm 139, translation from The Living Bible.)
Common law forbade abortion prior to “quickening”, that first flutter of life a pregnant woman feels somewhere between 13 and 16 weeks of pregnancy. Early Christian theology believed becoming recognizably human occurred over the course of pregnancy and that the soul was infused into the male at 40 days and the female at 80 days. Until the mid-nineteeth century, most states permitted abortion prior to quickening if the mother’s health was in grave danger, or if there were a substantial risk that the child would
