Thoughts on a divisive issue

I can confidently state that I never thought about abortion until I came to the US. 

For the political junkie that I have always been, abortion was not a red hot social issue for me to follow.  And, of course, there was no reason for me to spend time and energy on a topic that was not personal; a male privilege.  

Here in America, it was a completely different story.

Way back in graduate school, when I was an intern in a planning agency in downtown Los Angeles, I came across a pro-life (anti-abortion) rally.  And when walking about, I spotted in the window of a Christian bookstore--if my memory is correct--a couple of jars in which human fetuses had been preserved in order to convey the abortion issue in a graphic manner.

Abortion has become a lot more explosive political issue since those relatively mild times three decades ago.

Centuries before the biology of making babies was scientifically understood, it would have been clear, even to the caveman and cavewoman, that a couple of minutes of frolicking around could result in a baby ten moons later.  

We have come a long way from a rudimentary understanding in those cave-dwelling days.  But, our inability to create life artificially and to prevent deaths mean that life itself remains a mystery.  When life is a mystery, it then provides enormous scope for interpretations, via religions and otherwise.

Science and technology have managed to remove most of the mystery out of life by continuously breaking down the mechanistic processes in baby-creation. 

The understanding of the mechanisms meant that we could also develop products that prevented pregnancy.  Humans were now increasingly looking at a real possibility of frolicking around without worrying about creating a life.  Thus, began our big political divide, which is a philosophical issue: Are contraceptives that prevent the creation of life acceptable?

The battle over contraception is far behind us.  Governments in developing countries spend money talking up contraception.  Family planning was a huge political issue in India when I was growing up, and the mother-son duo of Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi went overboard on this with forced sterilizations too.  As a tween who had yet to figure out human biology, I was quite confused about what the ads about Nirodh were all about.  We did not have then the kind of sex education classes that are offered in schools here in the US where they might even apply a condom over a banana.

The contraception battle is no longer fought.   The pill launched another political battle, but that too is largely over.

Science and technology also "created" life in test tubes, which further demonstrated the mechanics of life, which, in turn, made life that much less mysterious.  I am always surprised that the opposition to abortion far outnumbers any opposition to the "unnatural" ways in which medical technologists now routinely create babies without the natural frolicking.

If contraception failed in the natural way, or if the partners overlooked contraception in the heat of the moment, and if a life form results, then what?  The road forks: Carry or abort?

I have always had enormous sympathies for the anti-abortion sentiments, even though I am firmly settled on the side of the mother having the choice to abort the fetus.  I imagine--I have to only imagine, given that I am a male who has no idea otherwise about what it means to be a woman who discovers she is pregnant--an abortion to be a traumatic incident in a woman's life.  Yet, women choose to do it because they know that is the best possible outcome.  Who am I to say otherwise.

I understand how deep down that opposition is not merely to the horrors of abortion itself, but is about a philosophical understanding of what life is.  For all the non-believer that I am, I consciously think about my existence, and worry about what it means to be human.  I think a lot about what living a good life means, and that thinking extends to the abortion issue too.  

Whether it is weighty issues like abortion or life-extending medical procedures, or smaller ones like the role of technology, I am increasingly concerned that we do not spend enough time trying to understand what life is all about.  I do not mean a blind faith, dogmatic, thinking about life but a sincere, honest, and introspective approach to clarifying for oneself what makes life good, and how to deal with the twin mysteries of life and death. 

In a Socratic tradition, we ought to poke and prod and explore why beliefs and arguments are weak.  We ought not to be afraid to even throw out our own bottom-line when we find better explanations.

It is a tall order, no doubt, especially in a world of sound bites and systematic disinformation.  But, really, is there any other option?