|
medpundit |
||
 |
 |
|
Monday, March 31, 2003"I was shocked that there were that many students who felt strong enough and confident enough to speak about being pro-life," said Nina Verin, a parent of another student in the class (whose oral argument was about war in Iraq). "The people I associate with in town are pro-choice, so I'm troubled — where do these kids come from?" Teenagers supporting life. Crazy kids. What’s the world coming to? Of course, experts have an opinion as to why support for abortion is declining among teenagers. Well, lots of opinions, really: Experts offer a number of reasons why young people today seem to favor stricter abortion laws than their parents did at the same age. They include the decline in teenage pregnancy over the last 10 years, which has reduced the demand for abortion. They also cite society's greater acceptance of single parenthood; the spread of ultrasound technology, which has made the fetus seem more human; and the easing of the stigma once attached to giving up a child for adoption. Ultrasound makes the fetus seem more human? Earth to experts: the fetus is human. Even a human embryo is human. But the kids give the best explanation for their opinions. It’s far too easy for them to imagine having been aborted themselves: One of them is Kelly Kroll, a junior at Boston College and president of American Collegians for Life, who says she is a "survivor of the abortion holocaust" because she was adopted. "Myself and my classmates have never known a world in which abortion wasn't legalized," she said. "We've realized that any one of us could have been aborted. When I talk about being a survivor of abortion, I am talking about it from a personal place." Even kids who weren’t adopted, but raised by pro-abortion parents probably think about that from time to time. Thinking of an aborted fetus, wouldn’t they also think, “There but for the grace of God go I....” UPDATE: The Cranky Professor used this approach when discussing abortion with students: While in the throes of my dissertation I taught high school Latin. The abortion argument would come up at least once a year (for all people talk about public schools, if the teachers allow it real thought can go on). My showstopper was asking how many of them believed there was someone MADE for them, a one-and-only out there. Then I asked them to look up the numbers and figure out the odds on whether their one-and-only had made it to birth. Mean but effective. posted by Sydney on 3/31/2003 06:01:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
|
