That Dirty Word: Abortionist

Abortion providers - doctors whose conscience impels them to provide to women determined not to complete a pregnancy with a safe abortion procedure, must of necessity be dedicated to their profession and to an empathetic compassion for women. The medical profession delights in portraying itself as one that supports life. Its practitioners are cautioned to 'do no harm'.

And many within the profession side with the stark opinion of 'pro-lifers' that one does grave harm in aborting a potential human being.

Religion, needless to say, plays a large part in this unwillingness to eschew the battle against access to abortion. As does society's general mores that hold a woman's body is meant to produce new life, and it is unethical, immoral, for a woman to deny that new life to come to realization. This is the traditionalist view, one that is considered punitive by women liberationists.

It is undeniable that throughout the history of humankind women have sought means by which they can themselves cut short an unwanted pregnancy when societal norms mitigate against the legality of abortion. And in the process not only were the foetuses destroyed but the lives of many women as well. Not all attempts at abortion were successful, with the results that the pregnancy went full term, and yet another unwanted child born.

There are those who hold that it is from among these unwanted children, largely, that society's neglected children mature into society's social misfits and sociopaths. Having been denied love and emotional support, unwanted children never learn to give or to receive love, and remain dysfunctional throughout their lives.

There are women who quite simply cannot cope with another child. They should have the right to decide for themselves.

First-trimester abortions don't seem to present as ethical dilemmas to most people. It is the late abortions, those that take place when a birth is close and the resulting life is viable, that presents as a moral dilemma. That takes deep thought and reluctant acceptance for anyone. And doctors who lend their professional care to women who for one reason or another seek that route, are harassed and despised by pro-life groups.

The matter of abortion entitlements in the United States, as in Canada, has never been satisfactorily concluded to everyone's satisfaction. And in fact, it never will be. That women have the right to decide for themselves whether they wish to proceed with a pregnancy should be a given, and for most people it is. Yet the pro-life community will not permit even that to rest.

So little wonder that bitter acrimony in society results from the clash between those who feel relaxed about the process and those who equate abortion with mass murder. But when those who claim to respect life take a life to prove their dedication to the belief that abortion represents murder, society has become lesser as a result.

An American doctor living in Kansas who was one of very few medical practitioners in the United States who will perform late-term abortions, who has been demonized by outraged right-to-lifers, who has been threatened repeatedly, had his clinic bombed, been shot at, is a brave and dedicated man indeed to continue to defy his detractors and those who were intent on doing him grave harm.

His medical competence, and his dedication to serving the needs of women have finally resulted in his death. Shot to death as he attended church; in the lobby of Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas. It is a tragedy that his courage in the face of the moral outrage of groups committed to saving potential lives, has resulted in the waste of his own.