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by Adib Rashad ~


Abortion is a very sensitive and controversial issue in American society; as
a matter of fact, it has become in many instances the number one issue for
political hopefuls.  The issue of abortion has two extreme
proponents--pro-choice and pro-life--which exacerbates the emotional elements
of the subject.

However, I think it is appropriate to asses the philosophical aspects of this
subject; afterwards, I shall address the political aspects of abortion as
well as its extreme conceptual opposites--contraception and sterilization.
Because the pro-life and pro-choice positions are so extreme, relevant
discussion pertaining to either is rather difficult.  The difficulty
surrounds the fact that both extremes consider the rights of their position
to be absolute.  Thus when certain rights are considered absolute, there are
no other rights that can take precedence.  The strong pro-life position
posits that the fetus has an absolute right.  At the other extreme, the
strong pro-choice position posits that women have absolute rights over their
bodies and lives and that the fetus, until it becomes a person, has no rights
at all that can be allowed to interfere with the woman's rights.
Obviously, both positions are presented as absolute; therefore, the
possibility of the two extremes meeting somewhere in the middle, or for an
intellectual compromise, is rendered inconsequential.  This simply means that
abortion as an issue has only two choices; either abortion is completely
wrong and should never be done, or it is completely right and can be done any
time.

There are moderate positions which allows abortion under certain
circumstances, but not under others, and limits the period of pregnancy
during which abortions may be performed.

Daniel Callahan and Sissela Bok have explained what is called the
developmental view of "human beingness."  Their position essentially states
that the fetus is to be valued from conception onward, but that its value
increases as it develops, so that abortions done early in pregnancy may be
granted, but they should be limited more and more as the fetus develops and
becomes more valuable because it is approaching full and complete "human
beingness."

Bok's position on abortion, based on this view of when human life begins, is
that abortions may be allowed for any reason up to twelve weeks, or the first
trimester of pregnancy, although they should be avoided where at all possible
since human life is present in potential.  From thirteen to the twenty-eight
weeks, abortion should only be allowed for very important reasons, such as
severe malformation of the fetus or to save the mother's life.  After the
twenty-eight weeks, abortion should not be allowed unless the mother's life
is definitely in danger so that she would lose it if she were to go through
with the pregnancy.

This position, which is not extreme, provides a practical compromise for the
rights of both the fetus and the mother, but limits those rights so that
neither is excluded from moral consideration.

The Politics of Abortion:
Interestingly, many of the pro-life advocates are right-wing, Christian
fundamentalists.  Equally interesting, is the fact that many of these people
support, and are descendants of those who supported contraception for people
of color in the United States and the third world based on the pretext that
this would curtail overpopulation.  Many, if not most of these people support
capitol punishment, United States military invasions into poor, impoverished
non-Caucasian countries, and they almost always oppose equal rights for
ethnic minorities and poor people.  I will say more about these points later.
Prior to the Roe v. Wade decision (1973), the Catholic Church was the sole
opponent of abortion rights.  However, by the late 1970s right wing activists
such as Richard Viguerie, Paul Weyrich, and Connie Marshner realized that the
subject of abortion, if handled properly, had the potential of becoming a
political weapon.

It is important to note that because of these individuals, a number of
political organizations emerged that were dedicated to agitating the
electoral process for support for their cause.  Their concerted and
indefatigable efforts resulted in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.
For most of the Reagan years, the antiabortion movement searched desperately
for effective ways to promulgate its positions.  In 1988, an unknown used car
dealer turned preacher challenged antiabortionists to put their bodies where
their rhetoric was.  "If those who know abortion is murder would begin acting
like it is murder, we could close down every abortion clinic in the United
States."  Randall Terry became the pro-lifers flamboyant orator.  He became
the chief strategist for Operation Rescue.  Members in Operation Rescue
employed civil disobedience tactics outside abortion clinics.
Terry managed to successfully influence fellow evangelicals, these were
people who believed in the literal word of the Bible.  Furthermore, they
were, and are to a certain degree, supporters of Pat Robertson for president.
 
Abortion was and is a political instrument; interestingly, former Governor
Douglas Wilder, was politically astute enough to know the importance of
making  abortion a campaign issue.  He won, for the most part, because he
supported a woman's right to have an abortion; this position was
diametrically opposed to the Republican party's position on abortion.
The Republican party had a strong antiabortion plank in its 1988 platform,
and President George Bush conveniently became a steadfast pro-lifer. 
However, he was once quoted as opposing a constitutional amendment to declare
that life begins at conception, and surprisingly, he once supported public
funding for some abortions.  However, on his first day in the White House,
Bush addressed a group of pro-life demonstrators by telephone hook up
declaring that abortion is an "American tragedy."

Needless to say, there are some pro-lifers who are sincere about the fate of
the unborn, but at the risk of sounding cynical it is doubtful that some
right wing leaders, Republicans as well as Democrats really care about the
unborn.  I say this because their political records demonstrates that they
care very little about children that are already here.  Most right wing
attacks on abortion appear to be politically opportunistic.  Before abortion
was utilized as a political instrument, many, if not most, of these right
wing politicians supported forms of birth control as a means of population
control for Black people.  When President Reagan was governor in California
in the late 1960s, for example, he expressed concern about the prospects of
his state having a majority nonwhite population within a generation.  He
signed into law what was then the most liberal abortion laws in the country.

Sterilization, Abortion and Racism:
There should be no wonder whose unborn babies the pro-lifers are so eager to
save.  Demographers and social scientists have pronounced that the United
States is vastly becoming a nonwhite country.  Could it be that the
pro-lifers are concerned about their white numerical superiority?
Estelle Freedman and John D' Emilio answer my question in their historically
illuminating book "Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America" when
they convey that the evidence of contraceptive use and the growing visibility
and use of abortion in mid-nineteenth century America helps to explain the
steady decline in white fertility rates and especially steep decline among
educated, urban and northern families.  The use of contraception and
abortion--even orphanages--was conscious desire to limit family size within
these groups.  Now that the nonwhite population, indigenous and immigrant, is
proliferating at such a rapid pace it is not far-fetched to believe that some
of the pro-lifers are primarily concerned about the continuing decline of the
white birth rate.

Adib Rashad RashadM@AOL.COM is an Education Consultant,
historian, author, and Education Program Director.

This article was previously published by theMarcusGarveyBBS (an entity of TheBlackList)
and TheBlackList at http://lists.topica.com/lists/TheBlackList/read