Today I found two posts on two complex abortion-related issues that the public really has not come to terms with. In both cases, the comments — and the personal stories they tell — are crucial reading.
First, Cathy Young at The Y Files discusses "Abortion, fathers’ rights, and equality" using as a springboard the controversial subtopic of mandatory spousal notification. She and her commenters search for an analogy… is it like requiring an HIV-positive person to notify his partner? (After all, knowingly transmitting HIV to an unwitting partner is a felony, after the fact). Or is it like requiring a wife to consent before the husband has a vasectomy? (Most doctors will not perform one without her approval.)
Second, Rachael writes a post not so much on a controversial issue of legality as on a controversial issue of the wisdom of the idea, widely accepted even among many opponents of abortion on demand, that a rape victim who becomes pregnant is generally better off if she has an abortion. She presents compelling evidence that the abortion-after-rape is experienced by many victims as a second rape. Again, the comments are crucial reading, as victims who came to different conclusions respond to one another. (Hat tip to Annie at After Abortion.)
Regardless of your political stance on abortion in general or on these sub-questions: It’s a moral duty to keep in mind the human faces, human stories of all the people involved. both those who are faced with terrible choices and those who are denied choice. Anecdotes do not substitute for data. But hefting the weight of a few anecdotes before considering the mass of numbers (21.3 abortions per 1000 women per year; about 43 percent of all women have had at least one by age 45, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute) helps one understand the human cost.
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