Originally written sometime in early May

We stayed up and watched the first of a new miniseries on PBS called Carrier. Like most stuff on that network, the show was excellent. At one point, in what I believe to be an effort to show the scope of drama in the lives of the 5000 people living on a floating city, they showed a fresh-faced young man recounting the story of how he told his girlfriend’s father that his daughter was pregnant.

Now what struck me about this is not the fact that the girl was pregnant; that stuff happens all the time. What bothered me was that the lad mentioned that he and the girlfriend both wanted to “do the responsible thing” or “the right thing”. Not to single this couple out, as this is a common refrain in our country, but I have to call bullshit on this one. The “right thing to do”, the “responsible thing to do”, would be to not have unprotected, or partially protected sex. Period. Having a child with someone who failed to be responsible in the first place, is hardly responsible. At best is shows the hope of responsibility, but not the fact of responsibility. In fact, it’s probably more appropriate to say it shows the faith of responsibility, as little or no responsibility has been actually demostraited.

Once pregnant, having the child is nothing more than making the best of a bad situation; one caused by one’s own irresponsibility. Nothing more, and nothing less.

Now I don’t wish any ill on this couple, or any other in this situation. Quite the contrary; I hope for them the best. Nor do I think they should have gotten an abortion. My point, my only point here, is that dressing up a pig, doesn’t make it any less a pig. If you want to be responsible, and do the right thing, and if you do not believe in the personal use of abortion (like myself), then the responsible thing to do, the right thing to do, is to not get anyone (our yourself) pregnant. Period.

See how simple that is?