"Amanda Marlowe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> asked,
There's something I would really like to understand, but I truly
don't: How come people who would like to prevent abortion will
not support methods that would prevent unwanted pregnancies (and
therefore, non-health/crisis related abortion procedures) in the
first place?
Rather than figure that `Man is Fallen', the Adam and Eve story, they
figure that `people are perfectable'. This an anti-Christian
understanding of human character, although people who consider
themselves `Christian' hold it.
The belief is that a happily married couple will only engage in sex in
order to have children, never otherwise. They will never engage in
sex to become closer. Also the presumption is that no non-married
people will ever have sex.
Old fashion Christians had a more practical (and forgiving) attitude
towards other people. The US Constitution was build on the premise
that politicians are corrupt. But the hope for perfection continues
to exist and the belief is that with sufficient government-enforced
monitoring and pushishment, it will come.
Historically, the counter-belief is why the Catholic Church provided
orphanages for what statistically was a slightly less than fully
probable act of infanticide: the 18th century French custom of
leaving an unwanted child outside a church. This institution came
into being before (mechanical) abortions became safer for the mothers.
(I only have heard about France; I don't know of other European
countries' social history.)
(I have been told that French `medicine women', however they were
called, knew of herbs that could be used for abortion for millenia. I
do not know of true this claim is. In any event, they were surpressed
successfully some centuries ago and their knowledge ceased to be
readily available in villages. Hence the much increased Church
acceptance of foundlings and the creation of institutions to handle
the increase. (Obviously, from an organizational point of view,
smaller numbers of foundlings could be handled by giving them away for
adoption.))
--
Robert J. Chassell
[EMAIL PROTECTED] GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc
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