Dialogue 3 – The Abortion

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AUDIO

Over the last two months Anthony has been having an affair with his graduate student, Jessica Khan. Jessica is a promising Ph.D. candidate under Anthony’s direct supervision. Anthony transgresses the cardinal rule of the vampire aca-demic: Never have sex with a student. The affair ends as quickly as it began. Anthony confesses his affair to Ursula after Jessica tells him that she is pregnant. With only two months before her scheduled dissertation defense, Jessica has an abortion. Anthony takes her to the abortion clinic for the procedure and has her stay overnight at the home he shares with Ursula. While Jessica is recovering from the procedure, Anthony and Ursula discuss the events of the day.

 

 

 

Ursula: So how did it go?

Anthony: How do you think?

Ursula: So what happened?

Anthony: Well we turned up to the clinic and they explained everything to us. It was all matter-of-fact, really. Everyone in the waiting room sat silently, avoiding eye contact and afraid. They looked so pale in there, they could almost be mistaken for vampires.

Ursula: Stop being so dramatic. Were the staff any good?

Anthony: As you would expect. The nurse went over the procedure beforehand and gave Jess the disclaimer form at the end. What I thought was funny was how there was nowhere for me to sign.

Ursula: Why would there be?

Anthony: It was my baby, too.

Ursula: Are you fucking kidding me?! Your baby? You had nothing to do with it. It wasn’t a baby, it was just a clump of cells. She wouldn’t be in that mess if you had kept it in your pants. You don’t get to have an opinion on this. How could you do that to her? To me?

Anthony: I’m sorry for that. For everything. For hurting you especially. I was wrong and I’m sorry. I should never have allowed myself to become involved. Pregnancy tissue is what they called it — the abortion clinic. I can admit that I’m wrong, but saying it’s just a clump of cells isn’t accurate, it’s dehumanizing. Human beings are more than just clumps of cells at different stages of development.

Ursula: You really are a complete asshole, Anthony. You don’t get to take the moral high ground here. You’ve been talking to Eva, haven’t you? That sanctimonious bitch. What you are calling a baby would have most likely killed her. Not to mention completely wrecked her career.

Anthony: I’m sure the fetus didn’t see it that way.

Ursula: Fetus? There you go again! It was nothing at that stage of gestation.

Anthony: OK then, at what stage does it become something?

Ursula: You know the rules, when it’s viable outside the womb and can survive on its own.

Anthony: I know the rules, but that doesn’t mean I agree; they don’t make sense. It’s not as if any human being is born and is instantly able to fend for themselves. Humans are an interdependent species. Who gets to decide who lives and who dies? Plus viability varies with advances in medical technology. More and more babies survive after being born prematurely every year.

Ursula: Lines have to be drawn and we have decided that as a society, you’re free to think what you like. Anyway what you’re saying is irrelevant. It was her body, it was her choice. Plus it’s not like it could feel or think or have any of the attributes that make up a human being.

Anthony: My body, my choice is a protest poster, it’s not an argument. Your reasoning doesn’t make sense. You’re basing viability on what a woman wants. If she wants to be pregnant, what’s inside her is a baby, if she doesn’t then it’s nothing worth caring about.

Ursula: The woman was here first. It is her right to choose, not the government’s and certainly not yours.

Anthony: So who lives and who dies depends on what women want? God help us all.

Ursula: Fuck God. God has nothing to do with this.

Anthony: God has everything to do with this. Conception of life is either something or it is nothing. If God doesn’t exist, there is no good, no evil, right or wrong. We don’t need to have this conversation since it doesn’t matter. One idea or action is as good (or bad) as another. Human beings are nothing more than random organic matter acting upon chance. Without a fixed reference point — God — There is nothing to judge good or bad. You can define your own reality and live your own ‘Truth.’

Ursula: I wouldn’t go that far. You talk of morality, like you’re in charge of it. Making a woman have a child she doesn’t want is immoral. Why bring a child into this world that you don’t want or can’t take care of? Jessica has the rest of her life to live. You know how difficult it is to get a tenure track position, much less secure tenure. How is she expected to do that without help? Where would she have gotten that from, you? You created this problem.

Anthony: I’m pretty sure that babies don’t give a shit about Google Scholar citations or whether or not she gets tenure. Your whole line of argument is based on it being her body and her choice. But that is not entirely accurate either.

Ursula: How do you figure that?

Anthony: A fetus isn’t a woman’s body, it’s inside her body. A woman’s uterus is in her body but it is designed for no other purpose than to carry a baby. A fact she is reminded of each month. If that’s correct, then the fetus has a right to access its mother’s womb in order to live for nine months.

Ursula: That’s ridiculous. You’re essentially arguing for forced pregnancy. Women are not just walking wombs. They have goals and dreams too. They deserve the freedom to choose.

Anthony: Forced pregnancy? It’s not like I raped her. That would be a crime. We don’t call being prohibited from killing your toddler forced parenting. Society has no problem forcing men to support children they have fathered once paternity has been established.

Ursula: That’s because it’s the right thing to do.

Anthony: I don’t disagree. But then you’re OK with women having the option of terminating their own child just because it cannot at that moment survive without them. How long do you think women would survive without men?

Ursula: Women have always been burdened with having children. Giving them control over their reproductive choices has levelled the playing field. It has allowed them to participate in the economy in ways that were previously unimaginable.

Anthony: Well men have always been burdened with putting their lives at risk for women and children. You seem to take that fact for granted. What’s worse is they are still expected to do that. Women want equality, but only when it suits them. Modern technologies such as the internet have created a burgeoning service sector. A knowledge economy. This has allowed women to participate in high-paying white-collar jobs. But the internet relies on the telecommunications infrastructure, which was built and is maintained for the most part by men. When the electricity goes out, you don’t see feminists scaling hydro poles attempting to restore power. We take these things for granted, because we take men for granted. They’re expendable. This has always been the case. What’s different is that we have come to believe that the unborn are expendable too.

Ursula: So you’re saying that women should just make babies and live a life of domestic slavery like it’s the 1950s?

Anthony: No Ursula, I’m not saying that at all. Women have more choices than they have ever had at any point in history. They are also more miserable and lonelier than ever. When exactly did the aspiration to be a wife and a mother become a bad life choice? A burden. What’s unfair is that young women are lied to that they can have a career and contribute to a family without compromise. That’s simply untrue. Modern women regard a man’s life as an al-a-carte menu, they can simply pick and choose which parts they want. They complain that they are not getting into C-suite positions in blue chip companies, they don’t complain about the fact that most of the shitty jobs that still have to be done are positions that are primarily occupied by men.

Ursula: I never said that being a housewife is a bad choice, women should have the option to do that too.

Anthony: You seem to think that biological imperatives are optional, but they are not. Men and women are biologically different, that is a fact. If a woman wants to act like a man, she should not be surprised when she is treated like one and vice versa. Your theory is that giving women control over their own bodies would result in greater equality for all. But that hasn’t happened. Abortion is a moral wrong, no amount of self-serving rationalization can result in the inescapable moral consequences of that decision. You seem to reduce abortion to the moral equivalent of a tooth extraction, but if I had taken Jessica to the dentist this morning we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Ursula: So what about rape or incest? Do you think women should not be allowed to have an abortion under those circumstances?

Anthony: Well that’s a bit extreme since rape and incest account for a small fraction of pregnancies in the first place; the vast majority of abortions are elective. Rape and incest are moral wrongs, there’s no question about that. But does it follow that terminating an unborn child is morally right?

Ursula: But why should a girl that’s been raped have to suffer the consequences of some man’s decision to violate her?

Anthony: There’s no question that terminating the pregnancy makes the most sense. Who could not understand that having a lifetime reminder of being raped would be traumatic? We can agree that the rapist is guilty and should be punished, but can we also agree that the unborn child is innocent and should not be punished.

Ursula: So you would make her have the baby, you selfish prick!

Anthony: I wouldn’t force her to be a parent to that baby. She could put the baby up for adoption. That is an option.

Ursula: That’s a very convenient position to take for someone who’s never given birth.

Anthony: What is convenient is the taking of an innocent life because it does not happen to fall into your personal plans. Having sex comes with a risk of having an unwanted pregnancy. While we have significantly reduced that risk through reliable birth control, that risk is not zero. But just because the pregnancy is unwanted, it doesn’t follow that the unborn child can be deemed pregnancy tissue and discarded like a Kleenex.

Ursula: You must be very happy that Roe v. Wade got overturned.

Anthony: As a matter of legal reasoning, I thought it made sense. Whether you agree with abortion laws or not is ultimately a political question that should be decided by the legislature and not the judiciary. I never quite understood how constitutionally protected freedoms of liberty and privacy could be interpreted to enshrine a woman’s right to terminate her child.

Ursula: Well, in free and democratic societies privacy is interpreted as the freedom to make intimate and personal choices that are central to personal dignity and autonomy.

Anthony: That all sounds nice until you realize that you are in effect engaged in state-sanctioned murder.

Ursula: Almost no one but those evangelical lunatics seriously thinks that.

Anthony: People have the right to their opinions. Calling them lunatics is not a principled basis on which to reject their argument.

Ursula: I just don’t think it’s right. If you ban abortions, women will just find other more dangerous methods of achieving the same ends. Do you really want to go back to using coat hangers in back alleys?

Anthony: Now look who is being dramatic. It’s something of human nature to want pleasure without pain. If anyone does not understand that the act of sexual intercourse carries with it the possibility of having a child, that person is either stupid or naïve. You don’t just get to say, ‘I made a mistake, I want a do-over.’

Ursula: So you’re saying that we should all be virgins until marriage and then be platonic ‘till death do us part’ so we don’t ever get a child we don’t want?

Anthony: Look, I’m not perfect and I don’t claim to have all the answers. But I do think that we should acknowledge right from wrong, even when we’re on the wrong side of the line — especially when we’re on the wrong side of the line. The road Roe led us down was paved with good intentions, but it has resulted in millions of innocent lives terminated. Fewer marriages, more divorces, an epidemic of mental illness and loneliness. In the absence of responsibility, more choice tends to create more chaos. That’s not progress, that’s social degeneration.

Ursula: You’re wrong. What’s the point of bringing a child into this world that no one wants?

Anthony: You should be specific here. You mean what’s the point of bringing a child into this world that the mother doesn’t want.

Ursula: Fair enough. It’s her life that will be most affected. It’s her body that’s going to get ruined by the pregnancy, it’s her career that’s going down the toilet. And for what? So she can be shackled to a baby and dependent on a man for the rest of her life? It’s her life too, doesn’t her choice matter too?

Anthony: It does. But, as we have discussed, for the most part women make a choice to have sex with a man. That choice always has a risk of pregnancy attached to it. In the rare instances that she has had sex without consent, she still has a responsibility to not harm the innocent life that is inside her. Why should women not be held accountable for their choices?

Ursula: The bottom line is if a woman wants an abortion she should get an abortion.

Anthony: When?

Ursula: What do you mean? Whenever she wants one!

Anthony: At what point during the gestational period should abortion be permitted?

Ursula: I don’t know, 12 weeks. Maybe more depending on the circumstances.

Anthony: So she should be required to have the baby after 12 weeks?

Ursula: I guess. If she can’t get it together after 3 months then that’s on her.

Anthony: So for you, women have 3 months grace period to decide whether or not the life inside them will be allowed to be born?

Ursula: Yes. Sure.

Anthony: So the youngest premature baby to survive is around 21 weeks. Advances in neonatal care are likely to reduce this time even further. What is the reasoning for elective abortion at any point during the first 12 weeks?

Ursula: Accidents happen. People need second chances.

Anthony: Pregnancy isn’t an accident, it is a consequence. You think women should have second chances, but not men.

Ursula: I didn’t say that.

Anthony: You didn’t have to.

Ursula: Lower your voice, she’s waking up.

Anthony: Let’s see if she needs anything.