Roe v. Wade recognizes women's rights

April 14, 2006

SPECTRUM/Art Carney

Several year before Roe v. Wade, I was a poor, hard-working idealist who never lost sight of the silver lining, while my wife was a poor, hard working realist who never lost sight of the ominous dark clouds. When she learned she was pregnant with our sixth child, she was near the end of her rope, and at least once a day she would ignore my optimistic encouragement and threaten to kill herself.

After about three weeks, I approached the end of my rope and told her to, &#8220Get it over with for Christ sake.” Thankfully, she made it through the day and never spoke of it again. She filed for divorce a few years later, but we remained civil with each other and even somewhat friendly in our old age.

For most of my first 50 years, life was a real bitch, but I finally found some contentment and a good lifestyle that suits me. At first, I thought my good fortune resulted from getting smarter with age, but from my retirement rocker, hindsight tells me I have earned every bit of goodness that comes my way. I had abandoned the notion of &#8220God-given good fortune” a long time ago after surviving a mid-life crisis. At that time I concluded if there is a God, he is on the other side of the Big Bang and doesn't intervene in the affairs of man.

But long before that realistic revelation, even though I wouldn't take a million dollars for any of the kids, I wouldn't have given a dime for another one. I had a strong resentment against the religion that taught me it's a sin to use contraceptives, and I came to believe that sometimes it's a bigger sin not to use them. Although I still believe there is a need for religion in society, I resent religious efforts to enact or change laws that impose religious morals on the population as a whole regardless of belief.

Roe v. Wade does not compel anybody to do anything; it only recognizes that women have a right to terminate a pregnancy. It is their body, their morals, and their business what they choose.

Through my travels and experience, I have become a bleeding-heart liberal, and sometimes I wonder what the world would be like without my youngest kid. If abortion had been chosen way back then, except for the unlikely event of him bringing about peace on earth or the like, the world would not miss him by more than a single whit. But I wouldn't have known him, nor would his mother, siblings, friends, coworkers or a host of others. We are all better off for his presence, but if he had never been born, we would not know the difference. In a manner of speaking, as a fetus my youngest son was a potential blessing or a curse. He turned out to be a blessing, but it took about 30 years to prove it. Like me, he was a crazy, mixed-up kid.

Sometimes I play the &#8220if I knew then what I know now” game, but it is fruitless endeavor. If I were faced with similar circumstances now, I like to think I'd be understanding and supportive of whatever decision my wife made. As for offering advice on the matter, we all have to live our own lives, but there is no way to escape trouble and strife. Kids probably offer more joy and meaning to our lives than anything else, but we all have our limits, and being fair to our self is not a bad thing. I personally think it should be the first consideration, but religious guidelines are OK if you have made them your own through the use of reason.

From the book Freakonomics by Levit and Dubner, one obvious benefit of Roe v. Wade was the dramatic decrease in New York City's crime rate in the 1990s, which correlates with abortions performed in the 1970's. That particular generation had fewer unwanted kids that grew up in &#8220deficient” circumstances.

Art Carney is a resident of Wasilla.