SELECTIVE REDUCTION

SELECTIVE REDUCTION

"It's called 'selective reduction.' It means killing one or more babies when a woman is pregnant with 'multiples.' It is a difficult decision of great moral moment. But not in the view of freelance lecturer Amy Richards, whose account appears in The New York Times Magazine.

She was living with her boyfriend and decided to go off the pill. They agreed to have the child if one showed up. Alas, three babies appeared. Now what? Her income would take a hit. 'There was a part of me that was sure I could work around that,' she allowed. But, 'Do I want to?' No.

There were health risks. Moreover, 'I'll have to start shopping only at Costco and buying big jars of mayonnaise.' So she went off to the specialist, who would shoot potassium chloride into two of the fetuses. When looking at the sonogram, her boyfriend, Peter, thought: 'Oh my gosh, there are three heartbeats. I can't believe we're about to make two disappear.' But the doctor pushed him out of the room and did the deed. In Richards' view 'it's the woman's choice.' 'Choice.' Making two heartbeats disappear is simply a 'choice.' ... Yet abortion really is not about choice.

It is about consequence. The consequences of choices freely made. Consider Richards. She chose to have sex with someone.

She chose to go off the pill. Choices appropriately left to her, unregulated by government. But having enjoyed the freedom to make those choices, she wanted to avoid responsibility for the results: becoming pregnant with triplets. If you want the right to choose to have sex with whomever you want whenever you want, you can't act surprised when a child (or children) shows up. Especially if you knowingly dropped birth control.

It is life. Maybe not fully formed. Maybe not fully conscious. But even (John) Kerry admits that it is life... And life should not be terminated because one fears having to shop at Costco.

Especially while adoption is a positive alternative. ... Men and women are free to choose to have sex, without birth control, as often as they like with whomever they like. They seek the 'right to choose' abortion in order to escape responsibility for their other choices." --Doug Bandow