Published: September 16, 2008 08:23 pm         

LION AND THE LAMB: The urge to merge

The urge to merge — to mate and copulate — is one of the most common and natural characteristics of living creatures. We can't speak for other kinds of organisms, but for human beings, the act of copulation has come to have a number of significant meanings for us besides propagation: pleasure, love, infatuation, passion, conquest, submission, accomplishment, and fear.

Teenagers begin to feel this urge in a powerful new way as they experience the hormonal changes in their bodies. We read reports that by the twelfth grade, 60 percent of high school girls in the U.S. are sexually active, and each year a million girls under twenty become pregnant. The experience of 17-year-old Bristol Palin has personified this situation for of us in a special way, and has provided us one more example of the deficiency of abstinence-only education advocated by her parents.

Bristol is fortunate, however, because her parents haven't kicked her out of the family (as many families do in such a situation), but have given loving support to their daughter and her impregnator who plan to marry before the baby arrives. We do know that the arrival of babies to teenage mothers generally decreases their chances for further education and better jobs. We know, too, that if they marry their impregnators, half of them will divorce within ten years. But perhaps the solidarity (and wealth) of the Palin family can help the new couple and their baby to beat the odds. It does seem to be a perversion of family values that the Palins would still oppose an abortion for Bristol if she were raped. By forcing her to bear the fruit of such violence and disrespect for nine months, they would be placing more value on the fetus' life than on Bristol's life and integrity.

The high rate of sexually active teenage girls and boys in the U.S. presents a wake-up call to our educational system to start providing comprehensive and accurate information and understanding about sexual relations, pregnancy, contraceptive choices, family well-being — and what responsibility in all of these areas means.

In addition, if our nation were really to value life in the womb, it would offer stronger support such as free health care to pregnant women — care that would hopefully continue for the newly-born as a precious new addition to the human family. A special part of this educational approach, of course, would focus on the responsibilities of the males who impregnate. Should the act of unprotected impregnation commit a male to continuing financial responsibility for the new life that his act brought forth?

The fact that 61 percent of women who have abortions are already mothers raises another important subject of attention: older women who become pregnant but who, for reasons of poverty, low income, lack of access to health care or child care, feel they would not be able to support another child. As an article in a recent issue of the National Catholic Reporter points out, increasingly groups in our nation are beginning to consider ways to provide support for such women by promoting accessible pre- and post-natal health care, help with parenting skills, income support, and adoption programs.

Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, a network of Catholic groups founded in 2005, recently issued a report on a study of the effects of public policy on abortion rates during the past two decades. The study shows that providing social and economic supports for women and family contributes to a significant reduction in abortion.

A survey of women who obtained abortions showed that nearly 75 percent cited economic hardship as a reason for obtaining an abortion. Three-fourths also cited having a child as interfering with work or school, or child-care responsibilities as a reason.

Alexis Kelley, executive director of CACG, said, "This data shows that policymakers on both sides of the aisle have a moral imperative to enact legislation that provides economic and social supports for vulnerable women and families in order to reduce abortions. Being pro-life is not just a slogan. It requires concrete programs and public policies that help women and families with robust economic and social supports. Both political parties can agree to unite behind comprehensive strategies that reduce abortions."