To conscript or even permit a 12-year-old to march against the best interests of women is hardly "logical," although Michael Balaski illogically and mistakenly believes it to be. It is a grave breach of ethics, and as such a contradiction to the perception that religious views are a reliable standard in matters of ethics and morality. A girl of that age knows nothing about the lives of women or the history of their persecution, marginallzation, even degradation, in an historically flagrantly patriarchal society.
The arguments against abortion use rhetoric as a weapon and claim it to be reason: the termination of unviable cells, even at an early stage termed "prenatal children", is "cruelty" according to Robert Mollot. He cites nine-month abortions when there are virtually no abortions in the ninth month: all late-term abortions are extremely dangerous and only undertaken when the alternative means almost certain death for the woman.
Criticism of anti-abortion is "judging" in the negative, judgmental sense according to Jasper Heit: in his view, apparently, any religious tenet or policy is permissible on the ground that religionists believe in it. The record of cruelty and inhumanity that has resulted from that belief fills history books and is the subject of women's studies and sociological research and discourse, ad infinitum. And the crimes are current and ongoing.
This is not a subject for formal logic, which gives no new information or information other than what is contained in the original premise, either sound or unsound. Society must decide on that: is it a good idea to regroup somewhere in the Middle Ages and attempt to make women slaves to their own bodies and procreation? Is that enlightened, and does it lead to the best results in human terms? Will it even be possible, or will it just be a waste of time and result, along with more obstacles to justice and equality for women, in even more discredit for institutions that claim moral guidance? Control of women and reproduction is a hallmark of fascism, it is well to remember, and fascism's revivified ghost is evident in the recent trend in US/UK politics and its morbid excretions: a young woman is arrested for murder after her pregnancy is terminated because she engaged, unarmed, in a dispute in which she was shot. This is not the path or "march" we should be in any way supporting.
Doris Wrench Eisler, St. Albert
