Abortion is a controversial matter. As such, one requires great tact to comment on the topic without offending other people. At least I come head high as I intend to condemn myself, the pro-abortion as well as the pro-life for our hypocrisy on the matter.
So far, social media comments I have read are either for it or against it. But I am not here to make a position for or against it.
Instead, I come to challenge each one of us to see the high prevalence of abortion as a pathetic failure to tame sexual appetite out of the wedlock among the highly spiritual people (the pro-life) as much as it is about low uptake of prevention methods (i.e. condom usage) among the pro-abortion stable.
The high prevalence of abortions is symptomatic of failed prevention strategy of illicit sex, mostly. It demonstrates that the moral high ground is cosmetic and many condoms and contraceptives are ending up in the dump sites than being used on some reproductive organ of human beings!
If I were to weigh in on the debate, I would say fighting symptoms is a temporary way of the healing process.
The root cause should be the focus: pervasive casual unprotected sex is the problem! Here, I am deliberately neglecting the fact that even married women or girls do procure abortions!
Yet here we are, discussing the consequences instead of the causes! We are here peddling our methods as the best yet we have failed to make them work (of course, not that they are, in themselves, bad!).
Criminal or legal, girls and women with unwanted pregnancies will procure abortion. Criminal or legal, this will never be morally acceptable.
We must see it for what it is. This is not an issue we must expect a compromise. So, let’s stop this sponsored noise and get real because this is not a drill!
Much as we would hate to admit it, we can all agree on the same thing: those pregnancies triggering a surge in abortion demand show that a compromise should have been on uniting for the purpose of ending unwanted pregnancies.
That means the religious community upping their game in building chastity and taming promiscuity among their constituents.
The other stakeholders should also check whether the truckloads of condoms and pills they are investing in to prevent unwanted pregnancies are yielding the intended gains or if they are not being used as intended or are they in short supply?
But sadly, the faith side says they are on course but their gains are being diluted by the pro-abortion. The other side also make similar charges. It’s a stalemate.
Let me repeat myself: If preachers preached about hell fire awaiting those that abort with a sense of passion as they do about riches, perhaps we would have seen a decline.
If the distribution of contraceptives was yielding the intended benefits, we would have seen a decline in unwanted pregnancies attributable to the distributors. Or was the demand way too high that the impact of the response is dwarfed?
My point is that the contest of who is the loudest or holiest make us lose focus. Abortion only becomes necessary because the pregnancy is unwanted.
Then why can’t we all be united to prevent the unwanted pregnancies using the arsenals at our disposal than waste a lot of resources and time agreeing to disagree on things we wouldn’t agree on, no matter what?
The only panacea I see working is that more multi-stakeholder investment is needed in preventing unwanted pregnancies.
For some of us, the end justifies the means. However, we neither endorse a method nor support a particular stand for others.
About Author
Mallick Mnela- Malawian Journalist with over 10 years hands-on-experience in online, newspaper, radio and magazine journalism locally and internationally.
