There are two sides on the issue of abortion. Either a person feels that it is ok to end the beginning of a life or a person does not. It is pretty black and white. Perhaps the person who feels guilt about it feels less guilt if the child is not viable, but nobody can deny that there is life and then there is not. But this is not a piece about abortion, per se.

This is an opinion piece (mine) about instant gratification. Sexual permissiveness; sex in many circles is as easy to pick up as fast food, and lack of intimacy between those engaging in the sexual act are symptomatic of this much larger societal disorder. The sexual intimacy which was once confined to two people that love each other has become a McRomance between McPeople. I wonder if this disengagement from each other has led to a lack of compassion between people, if it has built walls around our hearts, if it is what allows a woman in the back of her mind say to herself, in the worst scenario, I could always get an abortion.

I wonder how it got to this point. One day sex with a boy made you a slut, then years go by and sex with a boy is no big deal. It seems that it has become a rite of passage for males and females alike. But I’m not sure that all this fooling around isn’t taking its emotional toll on those who have sex for sport. Certainly it can’t feel very good to wake up and realize that you’ve had sex with someone who doesn’t love you… or am I the only one who can’t juxtapose the two? There are some men who seem to think that it’s mutual when there is sex but no commitment. I wonder how many women really feel that way.

I was but a child and very oblivious to the decade of free love that preceded the 1973 Roe vs. Wade court decision that essentially created abortion on demand in the United States. By the time I reached high school things had gotten more conservative in relation to events like Woodstock. In my small world I understood the facts of life and the repercussions that getting pregnant would hold for anyone in my social circle. Girls didn’t go all the way and if they did, they didn’t talk about it. Girls that were talked about were considered sluts.

Today, the girls in our Middle School bare as much of their bodies as they can get away with and that is a lot because there are just too many to police. They bend over and you can see their thongs. They pull out their make up mirrors in the middle of class and readjust their lipstick. They dance very suggestively when they go '"clubbin’." They call each other "B’s and they talk about "jukin” as a matter of conversation. They have such a vast knowledge of illicit activities that it makes me scared for them. After all, they’re still children! Their baby fat hangs over their hip huggers. Their little fingers pucker. Their faces are still round. And they’re having sex. Their attitude toward sex and drugs is so cavalier that I can’t imagine if faced with an abortion why any of them would say no.

Yet almost every persuasive essay that my female students have turned in (none of my boys have chosen the topic) about abortion has been against it. Almost all say it is wrong to kill babies, and that the woman should have the child. So if they all think it is wrong, when and why does this change? Ask any child of 8 if smoking, alcohol, or drugs is in his/her future and you can bet the answer will be no. But in 5 years ask and you’ll be surprised to see the change. The more available something is, the more accessible, the more hip, the more likely it will happen. The message today is that girls should look sexy, they should have sex, and that they should have safe sex to prevent STD’s, not to prevent pregnancy. What message is that for our young people?

That brings me back to my original question. Did permissiveness bring about abortion or did the availability of abortion add to its pervasiveness? The argument isn’t about trimesters or viability. At the core of every young heart is the notion that it is wrong. Somewhere along the line that idea gets rationalized away for a host of reasons, not least of all, convenience. And just like having sex with someone you hardly know leaves a feeling of disgust in your stomach, having an abortion has to leave a feeling of dissonance. It must be likened to that pea under the princess’s mattress. Only there isn’t a happy ending to this fairy tale.