(Disclaimer: making no moral statements on illegitimacy or abortion here; just practical discussion. Last time I did this, with no disclaimer, it was put about in the odd world of Wizbang's comments that I was taking a moral position. I wasn't then, and I am not now. Just for the record. AND: looking back on this, I have a feeling I'm not being clear, as usual. If I terribly offend you, bear in mind I may not have meant to say that!)
It's now been reported everywhere how a Catholic school wanted to bar a pregnant student from graduation, and how she walked anyway. Kudos to CNN for pointing this out:
The father of Cosby's child, also a senior at the school, was allowed to participate in graduation.
(To an extent, I see a justification for this difference in treatment -- if the only concern is the moral influence on the younger students, then it's rather easier to hide that a guy's about to be a father than that a girl's about to be a mother. However, I think there are many more concerns than that, looking at it from a conservative Catholic viewpoint, and no other concerns justify punishing the girl and not the guy.)
This is part of one of my long-term issues: You can fight abortion, and you can fight unwed motherhood,* but at some point (for example, the point after conception) you're going to have to choose which one is worse. Even making equal punishments for each doesn't actually work for impartial condemnation of each; as it's much easier to have an abortion without anyone knowing about it than to carry a child to term and give birth without anyone knowing about it, a pregnant girl faced with a specific punishment has the option of choosing birth and certain punishment or abortion and punishment only if discovered. And, unless I am mistaken, while traditional Catholic teaching does not approve of unwed motherhood (nor the behavior that led to it), after the fact they prefer it to abortion. Practices such as kicking pregnant girls out of school (not quite what they did in this case) and firing single mothers and potential single mothers, while they'll keep your school or company cosmetically pure-looking, will have the effect of encouraging abortion over illegitimacy. If pregnancy will actually destroy your life -- not in the sense in which it's commonly used, such as hampering your sorority social life or making you shop at Costco, but in the sense of barring you from the education generally necessary for a bright future or refusing you the employment necessary for survival -- then abortion, especially if you manage to do it without anyone finding out, may start to look like the lesser of two evils. Either there's a hypocrisy in the people-of-high-morals who prefer cosmetic purity (attained by purges of miscreants or by hushed-up bodily purges) to support and comfort for those openly bearing the consequences of their unacceptable behavior, or such people really haven't thought things through. I'll be charitable and assume idiocy or naivete over hypocrisy...
In a system, society, religion, culture, etc., where abortion is considered wrong, if a woman (pregnant with a healthy baby that she is physically capable of carrying to term) who also holds that belief finds abortion the best possible option, it is a sign that said system etc. is letting her down; as Alice Paul is reported to have said, in such a system, abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.
UPDATE: Want something clearer? Cake-Eater Kate is much more lucidly angry. And has examples!
*If you're fighting unwed motherhood, you should really also be fighting unwed fatherhood. It is rather more difficult, however -- for one thing, you have to know who the father is. Equal or greater moral condemnation for them is something various religious groups have historically ignored but are increasingly taking up. In another sphere, legal penalties (e. g. child support) that are the same for all fathers, married or not, are a good step, as they do take away one disincentive to marry.
When I was in (private Protestant) high school, girls who got pregnant were routinely expelled. I don't remember a guy ever getting kicked out for getting a girl pregnant, however, and that includes the principal's son.
Pissed me off then, pisses me off now.
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