I have a suggestion: Let's make all women experiencing unwanted pregnancies carry them to term under the following condition:
The father of the unwanted pregnancy must wear a Scarlet Letter A embroidered on the front of every piece of clothing he owns for the rest of his life, and he must have one tattooed on his chest for when he goes shirtless.
Because a woman carrying an unwanted child is not just experiencing all the physiological and psychological traumas associated with that. She is showing the unsympathetic world that she is a "sinner" as soon as she starts to show. Why should that be only the mother's burden? Isn't it half the father's, too? And it doesn't end when the pregnancy is over and the child is born and given to adoptive parents.
You know what I think would bring an end to the whole abortion debate as we know it? Is if there were a law that said that not only would the fathers have to wear the scarlet letter (and what the hell - I'll be fair about it - the mothers do, too, after the babies are born), but that conservative lawmakers would have to foot the bill for *every one* of those adoptive babies. Until they are 18. Better yet - that they'd have to adopt every last one of them into their own families.
I'd like to see these assholes - oh, sorry - these people put their money where their mouths are.
I'm guessing you're not a parent, Mark. I'm guessing that because almost without exception, the most vocal pro-lifers I know are not. But if you are, I apologize. And if you are, you know that raising a child you wanted more than anything in the world is hard as nails. Now imagine raising one you didn't want. And what if you don't have the resources to go and put that child up for adoption? What if you're a poor, urban crack addict whose child nobody is gonna want to adopt? Do you think it's still better to bring that unwanted child into your horrible, miserable world than the alternative? Are you willing to adopt *that* child?
I do respect your opinion and understand it very well. But I think that you also need to consider that we aren't talking about middle-class surbanites having unwanted pregnancies more times than not.
