Conceptus

Rooting around a little more in some questions I raised recently, about death and afterlife and babies and the infirm, I realize I should have addressed this as well: it's estimated that more than a quarter of all conceptions end in spontaneous abortion. (For the excitable, that means they die and are expelled without any outside intervention.) The actual number is likely to be significantly higher, since many pregnancies occur and end without the woman even knowing. This makes god the most prolific abortionist of all time.

Which raises the question, preceded by a couple of givens according to those opposed to women's choice: Life, we are told, begins at conception. God, we are told, knows our whole life even before we're born. So, what of those blastocysts, those embryos, those concepti -- stillbirths, for that matter; anencephalics, too -- that die at god's hands, before even leaving the womb?

Based on the religious arguments against abortion, it would seem every combination of egg and sperm, at no matter what time after their joining, represents a fully-rightful human life. So what happens when they expire from godly causes? If they're god-loved humans with pre-planned lives, surely they go to heaven. But in what form? Are they, like my iMac, my Macbook, preloaded with iLife? And the software takes them to what point in their pre-known lives? If they become what they'd have been anyway had they not been aborted by god, what's the point of going through all this life on the home planet? Or would he actually keep them as they were, maybe wiggling in petrie dishes? I'd think not, but what do I know? Related question: since they'd never lived "outside," never had any relationships, with whom would these former clusters hang out? Obits are full of declarations of heavenly reunions; in fact, the certainty seems to be the main selling point for real estate on the streets of gold. Isn't this a problem?

And what's the difference between abortions by god and abortions by man? Surely he wouldn't hold the fetus responsible for the act of its mother? (Not that there's much evidence of godly fairness in the doling out of earthly misfortune, but still...) So what's all the fuss about abortion, such a tiny fraction of which are at the hand of man? It's all human life, right? If so, they must surely go to heaven, yes? If they don't, they're not humans in the religious sense, right? But we're told they are...

I'd think these are all questions that the anti-abortion crowd, who seem to be the main contingent of Republican leaders since November, forsaking all serious interest in the economy, education -- in short, in our future -- to subject women to their religious beliefs, ought to be able to answer. Expected to answer. Required. To be consistent. Because it's not just about their religious beliefs: if that were all it was, I'd be as silent on the subject as Mike Huckabee was on Bristol Palin's pregnancy as opposed to that of Natalie Portman's. (Ms Portman, of course, is a walking dog-whistle for the RWS™: Harvard educated, Hollywood employed, smart, liberal. Scientist. And, let's not overlook: Jewish.)

But the fact is, it's political. I fully understand why many people are against abortion; like nearly every other human being, I'd hope it would continue to become ever more rare. (I'd also hope that those who'd force women to have babies would be willing to fund programs that make unwanted pregnancy less likely, and programs that help feed and clothe and educate the kids born into hopelessness. Which will never happen.) Nor do I have a problem with churches demanding their members reject it; just as I have no problem with churches that refuse to sanction same-sex marriage.

But when a group does everything it can to force its religious beliefs on an entire nation, including those who believe otherwise, it's a different matter entirely. And the above questions, if tainted with a little sarcasm here and there, are completely serious: if you demand that our country subscribe to your religious beliefs, the least you should do is to answer them.

While making sense.