COLUMN: "Pro-Democracy, Anti-Apathy"

From Brandon Fogel and Jason Seiden's "Skippy Gone Batty," Spring '92 Bat: First of all, we should stop talking about pro-life and pro-choice. These are loaded terms, like pro-abortion and anti-abortion, which are all inaccurate to some extent. Instead, we should refer to the opposing viewpoints as pro-abortion rights (PAR), and anti-abortion rights (AAR), meaning those who support unlimited abortion rights, and those who oppose abortion under any circumstances. Skippy: There's still a problem with grouping those who don't fit into either PAR or AAR, like those who advocate restricted abortion rights. But for simplicity's sake -- and so we can move on to more substantive issues than semantics -- fair enough. I'll call myself PAR. Bat: And I, myself, am AAR. Skippy: To start, let's discuss possible alternatives to abortion. Bat: A child's parents have an obligation to care for and support their child. They should try their hardest and do everything in their power to make sure their child survives. If two people who conceive a child do not feel this obligation or don't feel that they can adequately provide for their child, then they can put the child up for adoption. Skippy: The fault with this scenario is that not every child's parents are filled with love and understanding. The father is oftentimes absent or unknown and the mother may not have the capacity to care for the child, despite good intentions. Adoption may be an answer -- but there are a lot of "if's" that surround this option: "if" the baby is in demand (read: white and healthy); "if" the mother can afford to take a maternity leave from work or school without destroying her life (remember Hester Prynne's scarlet letter?); "if" the mother can find a home for the baby; "if" the mother can physically carry the unborn child and then deliver it . . . Bat: If people do not want or are unable to provide for children, then they should not have sex. Sex is a reproductive act. If people who do not want a child insist on having sex anyway, then they should take precautions to prevent conception. By properly using birth control, they can reduce many of the risks; however, no form of birth control, except abstinence, is perfect. Sex, unprotected or not, always carries a risk of conception. That is the root of the probem. Abortion is being used as birth control. Only one percent of the pregnancies aborted in 1989 resulted from rape or incest; seven percent were aborted because of health risks to the mother. The majority of abortions are performed because the parents did not use birth control or the birth control did not work properly. People must take responsibility and prevent unwanted pregnancies. Skippy: That is not necessarily true. Some factors may be beyond the control of the two consenting partners. For instance, not all women have access to adequate birth control. Many women cannot use IUDs or take the pill for various medical reasons. Many spermicides lose potency after time, and also require the planning of one's sex life, which may be quite difficult or inaccurate. Condoms break. And all of the above cost money. Most importantly, though, is that in this nation of inequalities, many men and women lack an education about sex. An inner city teen may not use a condom because she doesn't know that it works. And 90 percent safer sex won't mean a thing to someone who doesn't know percentages. Why convict these people -- guilty only of being mistreated by society -- to an endless lifecycle in poverty? Why force them to bring a child into a world which will, at best, ignore them? For many, an abortion at a nearby clinic may be the only form of birth control they've ever learned. Bat: No one would convict inner city youths to an endless cycle of poverty by disallowing abortion. Unwanted pregnancies are not the cause of the financial or social problems of either society or the individual. People who think unwanted pregnancies are the cause of societal problems are following the same reasoning Hitler used to show that Jews caused those kinds of problems in Germany more than 50 years ago. If unwanted pregnancies create financial and social burdens, then it was the failure to use birth control properly -- or to use it at all -- that caused those problems. The Holocaust was not the answer in Germany, and abortion is not the answer here. If people are ignorant about sex and birth control, then we have an obligation to educate them. If we don't they'll learn the hard way. Sex education should be taught and retaught in schools, and parents should make their children aware about sex and birth control. If birth control is too expensive, then its price should be lowered through government subsidies. It should be made readily available -- distributed by schools if necessary. The ideal solution is not to make abortion illegal, but unnecessary. Skippy: We're far from the ideal situation. Especially since one of the major problems we face is not being able to keep kids in school! They should not have to suffer for society's faults; face it -- at seven, none of us ever would have chosen the classroom over something fun if there were no restraints on our behavior. To hold the underpriveleged to the same standards to which we hold the rest of society is foolish and unrealistic. Of course, there is something which can be done about this. 1992 is an election year, and if you go to college here, then you'll probably be able to vote in the next election. That's one major thing you can do. Bat: Make your voice heard -- vote, and speak out. It is up to us, not the politicians we elect, to make this democracy work. We elect politicians for many reasons, and they do not always act in our best interests. I say we bring the issue of abortion back down to the ground level, and out of the hands of the few above us. America must decide for itself the kind of society it wants. Above all the "pro-this's" and "anti-that's," is democracy -- people deciding for themselves how they want to live. Put the abortion issue to a referendum, a popular vote, and let America itself -- not any individual group within it -- determine the course of its future. Jason "Skippy" Seiden is a freshman Entrepreneurial Management major from Highland Park, Illinois. Brandon "Wombat" Fogel is a freshman Physics major from Potomac, Maryland. "Skippy Gone Batty" appears alternate Fridays.

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