In 1989, the Catholic author Walker Percy described his affinity with a list of “liberal” causes such as battling poverty and extending a hand to minorities. But supporters of abortion and euthanasia, the novelist and medical doctor said, he did not understand even as they espoused the political and social causes he agreed with.
Their “hearts are in the right place,” Percy said, but “they cannot see the paradox of being in favor of these good things and yet not batting an eyelash when it comes to destroying unborn life.”
Bear that quote in mind as we highlight an article posted yesterday on Headline Bistro. Taken from The Washington Post, it is simply entitled “A Hard Choice.”
Basically, the story takes us on an eye-opening tour of the heart of the very world pro-lifers have passionately been fighting against over the past 35 years: the abortionists’ realm of medicine. There, students like 24-year-old Lesley Wojick are faced with the choice of whether they will provide abortions and, in her case, take it upon themselves to learn about the procedure.
The story itself ultimately seems to reflect the skewed, idealistic vision that leads med students like Lesley to practice abortions on papayas for the sake of “women’s lives and health.” But it’s worth a read to the end, even from the pro-lifers who cringe at its matter-of-fact tone.
After all, we just spent a whole campaign season talking about and decrying the hold that abortion has over so many politicians. But rarely are we made privy to the doctors’ feelings.
And honestly, Lesley Wojick is a compelling character in her own story, able to articulate her passion for wanting to help others, albeit in ways completely contrary to upholding a true culture of life. The story constantly backs this up with quotes (“I want to do something meaningful”) and facts (in high school, Lesley started advocating birth control and teaching at-risk teens to sail, in the name of reaching out to troubled youth).
It’s quotes like these that make one realize the attitude of a new generation of abortion-rights advocates:
“I think (abortion is) a necessary evil, no, unpleasant service, we have to provide for the sake of” women’s lives and health, Lesley said. “I feel the obligation to make sure that service is available and not stigmatized.”
With that said, here’s three points to take away from the story:
First: note the mentality of those in the story who advocate, and practice, abortion as a medical procedure in a very matter-of-fact way. The curt descriptions of the procedure itself and Lesley’s training, for example, or the students’ rationale that they would have to educate themselves about abortion. One of the most jarring quotes comes from a doctor demonstrating the abortion procedure on a papaya, which is shaped like a uterus.
‘This is the most important thing and the hardest to learn,’ the doctor said as she pulled out lots of seeds and juice, what in a real abortion she called the ‘products of conception,’ or POC. ‘You put the POC into a bowl, repeat if necessary, and examine them under a microscope to make sure you got everything,’ she advised.
… ‘How do you know when you are done?’ a student asked.
The doctor’s response is gruesome, but completely objective, in the fullest sense of the word – there is a definite distance between the doctor and the patient he is operating on.
This seeming insensitivity and roughness rattles even Lesley.
“This just seems so awful,” she exclaimed as she tried to grab the papaya ... “Do (patients) feel this?”
Her look turned to fright when the nurse practitioner at her station answered that they do.
Second, despite the gruffness – to say the least – of Lesley’s instructors, one is still struck by her own idealism and, what is more, her genuine passion for learning, helping others and getting involved.
“I want my actions to be consistent with my words,” Lesley said. She was explaining why she pursued learning about abortion during med school, but her words themselves are echoed by every person who seeks to defend life, too.
But the story’s conclusion leads one to wonder what, exactly, we are supposed to take away from the lessons of Lesley’s journey. To ruin the ending for you, she veered away from her dream of being an abortion-providing OB/GYN but still passionately holds to her belief in abortion rights.
Is it the moral of the story that those who do resolve to provide abortions are heroic? Or that there is something to be said for Lesley’s realization that “vacuuming out a uterus and counting the parts of the fetus did not seem like a desirable way to spend her work days”? Or – and this seems the most plausible, considering the tone of the entire article – that the lesson is only determined on an individual basis?
A journalistic form of moral relativism, if you will, summed up in a rather horrifying piece of advice from one professor to students thinking of becoming abortion providers.
“The first step is looking into your heart and asking if this is really what you want to do,” she said.
Great words in general, to be sure, but is that all a published academic can offer someone thinking of pursuing a career of taking innocent life? Despite Lesley’s persistent questioning and the story’s descriptions of ethical dilemmas abortionists do face (“What about the woman who comes in for her third abortion and doesn’t want to hear about birth control?”), there is no real confrontation of the ultimate question:
What if you are really killing an innocent, human being?
Lesley never seemed to grasp that, at least not from her description of the first time she witnessed a second-trimester abortion.
“It was definitely gruesome,” she said. “You could make out what a fetus could look like, tiny feet, lungs, but it didn’t look like a person.”
Walker Percy wrote another essay on abortion in 1981 entitled “A View of Abortion, With Something to Offend Everybody” (the title itself is a great hint at Percy’s own writing style).
“To pro-abortionists,” he proclaimed. “According to the opinion polls, it looks as if you may get your way. But you’re not going to have it both ways. You’re going to be told what you’re doing.”
Despite its faults, this story does that.
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