Well, quit whining and get real, says Bonnie Erbe. 

Feeding and raising children is expensive. Tuition may be free at public schools but there are still books, transportation, food, clothes, medical care and activities that add up -- way up. One may assume this family of five is struggling just to maintain its basics: housing and food. Add one more child and those costs rise as income drops. It's no tragedy: it's a good decision. The decision benefits society in two ways. It allows the couple to focus more time, energy and resources on their three children, giving each child a better life and a better chance of growing up to become a contributor to society. It also reduces the chance the family will have to rely on scarce public resources to raise their children. 

Abortion was not viewed as a tragic event in the early days after the Supreme Court handed down its Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion on a national scale. A tough decision: you bet. An unpleasant process: that, too. But it was not something women whined about publicly on the scale many seem to now. Nor was it covered by the media or promoted by pro-choice politicians in "woe is me" terms.

(H/T The Corner)

Comments

[David]

Based on the values that Ms. Erbe allows in her computation, it may be an even better decision to eliminate one of the older children, in order to make room for the new one. Obviously, she would not advocate that, because the existing children are undeniably human beings. Thus, we find ourselves at the same core question that will never be answered definitively: is a fetus a human being?

Perhaps this is an opportunity to ask for an answer to my own recently identified conundrum: If one states that a human being comes into existence at the moment of conception, because everything that makes a human human is contained in that fertilized egg, then aren't you saying that a human is nothing but "material"?

[Christina]

Hm, "Woe is me! I can't cope with a baby!" is being brave. "Woe is me! My baby is dead and it's my doing!" is "whining".

Gotcha.

[Mita]

Wow. Let's pair that diatribe with the suggestion in February by Jonathan Porritt, the chairman of the UK’s Sustainable Development Commission, that the U.K. cut the "surplus population" in HALF... and you've got an incentive to reinstitute human sacrifice and remove the penalties for murder and drug trafficking. ( see http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=11592)

And, of course, there's always the new jobs that could be created at a new government entity that could be monikered the Suicide Encouragement Hotline. Feeling blue? Can't cope? Feel you're just a drain on the world's resources? Call us! We can help rid the world of leeches like you! Free bottle of lethal pills for every caller w/free shipping!

This is spiritual blindness at it's finest.

[David S.]

That one is human at conception should not bear the onus of proof, but rather those who say such life is not human. What ever happened to the old saying, "It is better to error on the side of safety?"

Lacking consensus, those who debate whether it is human or not must agree not to pull the trigger on a possible human. We send kids to Hunters' Safety classes to learn as much.

[vikingmother]

Bumper sticker purchased & on my van

AOPTION: A CHOICE YOU CAN LIVE WITH.

And we live with several adopted members of our immediate and extended family! Yeay ADOPTION!
********************
PS: Anyone notice how the crisis pregnancies of girls/young women/couples seems to be a power source to be exploited by the gigantic Planned Parenthood, and others???

PPS So are we returning (as a society) back to the pantheistic and pagan thought debris and toxic waste of our pre Christian ancestors?

As I remember learning - HUMAN life was cheap then. And persons had a too worshipful view of nature--maybe the local oak tree for instance!

I remember a very VIVID Bible verse about a dog returning to lick up its vomit. Am not sure I'm taking it in context, but guess we (as a culture) forgot the historically documented horrors of our pagan past.

[vikingmother]

Maybe someone needs to retool Dicken's CHRISTMAS CAROL - for today. Or--just bring out even more stuff in Dicken's book---re the SCROOGE types who can't be bothered to help their fellow humans...and who realize they're just not merely going to "get over it"

Lots of stuff in Dickens' story coming from the author (who is, shall we say, just a bit ANGRY about having once been one of the British poor...i.e. "the surplus population").

Remember Scrooge's dead partner, Marley, who has lost his chance to help his fellow humans...

..Scrooge lamely tries to comfort sorrowing, chained, ghost Marley

"You always were a good man of business..."

Marley SCREAMS....
"MANKIND
WAS
my
BUSINESS!"