ABORTION
* Why the laws were made. *

Time and again the media inundate us with stories of activists, for and against, abortion. Stories of people parading in the streets with signs, throwing rocks, filing petitions. But do any of them, media or activists, ever take the time to really understand the purpose and intent of anti abortion laws.

Abortion laws are nothing new. They come up in parliament every now and then for amendment but they have been there since the beginning of the Dominion.

Abortion or at least the desire for abortion has probably been around as long as birth itself . Females, or their mates, have wanted to destroy fetuses, or is that foeti, for many different reasons. Some faiths require that the first born be male, perhaps the male parent is from the wrong side of the tracks, or maybe the female is just too young to give birth. Whatever the reason, the idea of abortion is more prevalent in society than the knowledge, or acceptance, of contraception.

Please note that I use the term female to denote the gender of the person and don't use the words girl or woman because pregnancy and abortion are common to all ages from ten to seventy.

As the idea of abortion came into being long before the term doctor was ever coined and the methods used to cause an abortion even during the early days of doctoring more often than not caused the death of the pregnant female, as well as, if not instead of, the death of the fetus, laws were enacted to prevent abortions, not for the protection of the fetus but for the protection of the mother.

Changes in legislation to allow abortion clinics are not for the purpose of allowing doctors to kill foeti but to save the lives of mothers who would otherwise turn to forbidden avenues. Despite today's modern knowledge of medicine, females, and males too for that matter, are still woefully ignorant as to how a baby is conceived and how conception can be prevented.

Though many tout that sex, as seen in magazines and movies, leads to promiscuity the fact that possession of any such material by its citizens has not prevented China from becoming the world's most populous country.

As the population of the planet increases so does the demand for abortion and if the law does not allow doctors and clinics to perform such functions the reluctantly pregnant females will turn to other sources for relief from their burdens.

Chemicals, rusty coat hangers, in dark rooms, in sleazy hotels, or behind the dumpster in some damp alley. Such are the choices that females face if abortions are outlawed. Choices that only too often lead to the death of the mother, exactly what anti abortion laws were meant to prevent.

The answer is, of course, abortion under the care and control of trained physicians in sanitary conditions such as a hospital or a clinic. Death, you say, yes, in a way but better the death of an unborn fetus than the terrifying death of a young girl in some dark alley.