The normalization of abortion

This much seems apparent, that if something is normal it needs no justification. As far as I am aware, there are few parades in support of sleeping, falling in love or eating bread, and fewer websites in flagrant support of wearing clothes. Normal things are either self-evidently normal, or they ain’t normal.

Thus making an effort to change public attitude towards abortion, as the new campaign My Abortion My Life is doing, fails from the very outset. If abortion were “a normal and necessary part of women’s reproductive lives and health”– i.e. if the creators of the website were telling the truth — there would be no need for their website. Of course, this sort of denial is ridiculous — the last time I checked anything that destroys life, increases cancer risk, and creates such visceral debate as abortion isn’t a normal part of women’s health. Unless one truly believes that women don’t deserve any better.

But it is worth pointing out that normalcy is no indicator of goodness or evil. Democracy is abnormal. A lasting family is increasingly abnormal. A child who hasn’t seen hardcore pornography by the time he is 16 is abnormal. What needs be discussed is not whether these things are normal, but whether they are good. One judges a tree by its fruits, not by its commonness. Poison ivy is normal — that doesn’t mean it is a benefit to the garden. Which is precisely my point. All the hopeless attempts at normalizing abortion are really just attempts to avoid the question of whether abortion is good. From their website:

The facts are clear.

About ONE IN THREE WOMEN in the U.S. will have an abortion during her lifetime.

About 50 MILLION WOMEN have had abortions since the Roe v Wade decision in 1973.

Even if you aren’t among them, it’s likely that someone close to you has been touched by abortion. Yet you probably don’t get to talk about it very much.

Imagine what will happen if just a small fraction of us who have been impacted by abortion begin to break the silence!

Abortion advocates of this bent are akin to equivocating children — “But everyone else is doing it!” To which any one with working brain can and should reply, “So?” But when you give it some thought, that sort of language could equally be applied to a pro-life website. Imagine what will happen if just a small fraction of us who have been impacted by abortion begin to break the silence, indeed. I cannot help but wonder, if My Abortion My Life’s aim is to “create a new and positive conversation about abortion,” will they be censoring the voices of those women for whom abortion was a negative experience? How could they not?