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Abortion debate: A matter of life or death
| Saturday, Jun 10 2006 9:12 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Jun 12 2006 6:18 PM
In February, Marlene Gonzalez made a life-changing decision.
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She and her boyfriend drove from Santa Maria to Bakersfield so that the 19-year-old could get an abortion at Family Planning Associates Medical Group. But abortion protesters outside the clinic changed her mind.
Those opposed to abortion rights praise the couple for not going through with the procedure. But the couple wonder if they’re ready for the monumental task of being parents.
Gonzalez, who is expecting in October, earns minimum wage at a part-time temporary job and is estranged from her family. For a while she was living in a hotel.
The father, 21-year-old Serjio Valencia, lives with a parent, is unemployed and has credit card debt of more than $20,000, he said.
Both are frightened.
“Sometimes I get scared about being a mom and not having any money,” Gonzalez said.
The abortion debate goes beyond whether a young, unmarried woman is emotionally and financially ready for parenthood.
Abstinence, contraceptives, religious convictions, women’s rights, medical complications, post-abortion depression and whether the unborn have rights — and what they entail — are part of the debate.
Abortion opponents have become emboldened recently by a South Dakota measure, on November’s ballot, that bans abortion in almost all cases. But even more exciting to the anti-abortion movement is a perceived shift toward conservatism on the Supreme Court that, some say, could eventually result in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 court ruling that legalized abortion.
“I believe,” the Rev. David Hall said at a recent anti-abortion event in Bakersfield, “that we are on the brink of having abortion outlawed.”
The Elizabeth League
If that happens in California, where abortion has been legal since 1967, the Palmquists are ready.
Tim and Terri Palmquist, of Bakersfield, co-chair LifeSavers Ministries, dedicated since its founding in 1984 to helping pregnant women in crisis.
Two and a half years ago, the Palmquists formed the Elizabeth League, named after John the Baptist’s mother, whom a pregnant Mother Mary visited, according to Luke’s Gospel. The league is composed of seven local church groups and an outreach in Santa Maria that offer emotional and some financial support to pregnant women.
“If abortion becomes illegal (in California), the girls are going to need help and support,” Terri Palmquist said. “That’s what the Elizabeth League is all about.”
Palmquist said that each week more that 50 abortions are conducted at Family Planning Associates downtown. Two or three women change their minds every week after talking with advocates outside the clinic, she said.
Watching the Palmquists’ graphic video of an abortion procedure is what convinced Gonzalez not to go through with hers.
Gonzalez is now part of the Elizabeth League chapter in Santa Maria, which helps her financially, arranges doctor’s appointments and offers emotional support.
The weary young woman is thankful for the help.
“We’re tight on money,” Gonzalez said, “but we’re excited about the baby.”
The religion issue
Ethical, medical and philosophical questions abound in the abortion debate.
Do contraceptives make women more promiscuous? Does abortion lead to clinical depression? Is a fetus a person in miniature, deserving of human rights? Are the mother’s rights more important than the unborn baby’s rights?
And should abortion be an option for a unmarried, financially strapped woman?
Compelling responses are made on both sides. But a consensus remains out of reach because the engine that drives the anti-abortion movement is not the same issue that incites the other side.
That engine is religious belief.
Though opponents say abortion is a human rights issue, religion informs their linchpin arguments.
As God’s creation, they say, the unborn is deserving of the same rights as a newborn. “Every child has a divine destiny, and abortionists are destroying that,” Terri Palmquist said.
Abortion is not about ending an unwanted pregnancy by evacuating tissue from the mother’s uterus, they hold. It is baby killing, the murdering of a divine human being.
Frank Baker, an abortion-rights supporter and former clergy member of Assembly of God, laments how religion has influenced the abortion debate. The Bakersfield resident is frustrated by the lack of compromise between the movements.
“If we were to leave the religious aspect out and think about abortion in a rational manner,” Baker, 64, said, “we would come to a compromise where both sides would feel a victory and be done with all the fighting.”
Candice Easter, chairwoman of the Kern County Democratic Party, said she objects to how Christian conservatives expect everyone to live by their standards.
“They have the right to choose not to abort,” Easter said, “but they do not have the right to press their moral standards on others.”
Contraceptives
Another chasm between the two camps is their views on contraceptives and abstention before marriage. Again, religious belief is front and center.
The Catholic Church and some Protestant denominations are against contraceptives, holding that they hinder the miracle of life. Sex, meanwhile, is to be engaged in only within the sanctity of marriage.
“Sexual relations are to be within the marriage covenant,” said Andrew Rawicky, a member of St. Francis of Assisi Church downtown. Sex outside of marriage is not within God’s plan, he said.
Critics, however, say that most young, unmarried people do not live celibate lives. Thus the need to curb unwanted pregnancies through contraceptives, such as the morning-after pill, said to cut the possibility of conception by nearly 90 percent if taken within 72 hours of having sex.
The Bush administration has blocked the pill from being sold without a prescription.
“It’s a responsible thing to do,” Amy Everitt, director of NARAL Pro-Choice California, said of using contraceptives.
“The more informed people are (about birth control), the better decision they can make,” she said. “Having children is a big decision.”
Freedom to choose
For Everitt, the defining abortion issue is not religion but freedom.
“America is so amazing because of its diversity,” she said. “What one person believes to be true, another person might believe is not true.”
Abortion rights are about “respect for all religious beliefs,” Everitt said, “and the choice to live a healthy life.”