The Luv Doc: Abortion is a Sticky Wicket

Luvdoc,
My boyfriend’s sister is a fundamentalist pro-life nutjob and I can’t stand to be around her. She always drags me into an argument and then I end up fighting with my boyfriend. What’s the best way to tell him I don’t want to be around her?
- Uptohere

Damn, abortion is a sticky wicket to be sure, so it’s best to just yank that bastard out of the ground entirely. Your BF’s S wants you to believe what she believes. That way she’ll be convinced her belief is right. You, on the other hand, probably think she is a retard who should have been aborted herself. Here’s the truth: You’re both right…or wrong. She might think that abortion is an abomination in the eyes of God - the same God who ironically aborted his only son 33 years after his last trimester (maybe if he had seen the ultrasound?) or she might just personally feel that killing babies is wrong, even in utero – especially the way it’s depicted on those baby-in-a-blender anti-abortion picket posters. Hard to argue against that, eh? Or, she might even be one of those every-sperm-is-sacred Catholics who portray masturbation and birth control as mini-holocausts. Regardless, she believes it strongly – just as strongly as you might believe that a woman has the right to control her own body – maybe even up to the point that if she wants to strangle her newly born infant to death shortly after childbirth, it’s OK as long as the umbilical cord hasn’t been cut. Unfortunately nature doesn’t provide any clear cues for difficult moral questions. Infanticide is not unknown in the Animal Kingdom…barbaric violence is fairly commonplace - as is nudity, gender discrimination, and bestiality (though really, being beasts, our furry friends should get a pass on this one). Anyone who has seen a house cat engaged in a shameless display of prolonged analingus in front of the TV set knows that nature is, if anything, completely apathetic to our attempts to impose a moral framework on it. Nonetheless, being somewhat sentient beings we have taken it upon ourselves to do exactly that, and by and large, we’ve done a decent job, but not without an impressive list of casualties. Morality continues to evolve, as should you. That means allowing for the possibility that you’re not absolutely right. Here’s the deal: Abortion will always be a hotly contested issue as long as unwanted pregnancies are an issue. Maybe you can both agree that the best way to end unwanted pregnancies is to do it before they get started. At least then you can focus on the how rather than the why. As for your boyfriend, if you don’t want to be around his sister, break up with him.