Jewish Law - Commentary/Opinion - Pro-Choice and then Some

Pro-Choice and then Some
Eytan Kobre

Pro-Choice and then Some

Eytan Kobre

The opposing sides in the abortion debate each employ slogans designed to win public support for their cause. Reasonable people are, after all, both pro-choice and pro-life, at least in the abstract.

Yet, there is irony in the fact that those favoring broad abortion rights march under the banner of "choice," which is best illustrated, perhaps, by a media campaign now running in New York's subways, courtesy of the "Pro-choice Public Education Project."

One ad in the campaign features a question mark, the upper portion of the symbol consisting of a piece of wire hanger and the lower portion being formed of this line: "When your right to an abortion is taken away, what are you going to do?" The ad ends with a stark ultimatum: "It's pro-choice or no choice."

Speaking for a group whose stated mission, as its name implies, is educating the public about the importance of individual choice, the ad actually seeks to constrict the arena of such choice. Rather than engage the factual and moral aspects of the abortion issue, the ad's Madison Avenue creators have opted to play upon a woman's fears, teaching her to repeat after them: "I have only two choices----it's me or the baby." It is a message guaranteed to strike a deep chord within women who know the desperation of being pregnant, helpless and alone.

What the ad conceals, however, is that a woman most often has more than just the two choices it implies. Before pregnancy, of course, there is the option to be abstinent or at least circumspect; post facto, there is the possibility of carrying to term and either choosing to raise the child or finding it a home with one of the many couples pining to adopt.

Without a doubt, these latter alternatives entail a vastly greater amount of time, effort, expense and postponement of gratification than a two-hour outpatient procedure. But a mature individual recognizes that this is true of any of life's truly worthwhile endeavors. Pursuit of lasting value and adherence to principle invariably require a significant investment of self. How, then, can those who hallow freedom of choice justifiably read some of women's real alternatives out of existence?

Another, even more disturbing, ad in the same campaign features a photograph of a group of stern-faced, business-suited men, surely evoking in many a mind the image of a disapproving, distant father. The caption below reads: "77% of anti-abortion leaders are men. 100% of them will never be pregnant." What rankles so about this line is not the blithe dismissal of the large number of anti-abortion activists who apparently have no problem reconciling their womanhood with their opposition to abortion. It is, rather, the barely concealed attempt to inject a blurring element of emotion into a debate that should be framed solely by moral principle.

Only a radical nihilist (or, perhaps, a certain ethics professor at Princeton) would assert that a woman's comfort or autonomy can be a valid basis for terminating a clearly viable, albeit fragile, human life. Thus, the abortion issue essentially turns on whether, or to what extent, the fetus in utero is indeed a human life. This being so, does the gender of 77%, or even 100%, of those opposing abortion have any bearing at all on this crucial moral dilemma?

What the ad's sponsors know well, though, is that a debate based on fact and ethical principle is one they are not likely to win, given the inherent moral uncertainties and delicacy of the subject matter. And so, images of male authority figures are trotted out as a means of pushing female buttons labeled "male domination", "sexual repression" and "victimization", stirring raw emotion to foreclose debate.

In the Jewish world-view, it is the ability to make moral choices that defines the very essence of the human being, so much so that the Hebrew word nefesh means both "soul" and "will". Judaism firmly rejects all attempts at the diminution or denial of human free will, whether couched in terms of scientific determinism or "The devil made me do it", as assaults on human dignity itself.

And it is precisely because free moral choice is both so central and so fragile that it must be insulated from manipulation.

"Behold, I place before you today life and goodness, death and evil" says the Torah. We are to clearly know the alternatives, and then, as the Torah implores us, we must allow our heads to guide our hearts and "choose life."

AM ECHAD RESOURCES

[Eytan Kobre is a lawyer residing in Queens and part of Am Echad's pool of writers]