Courtesy of google.com
I may have been born before my time, but at 82, I’m not too old to rejoice in the recent development of fertility phone aps. How wonderful that a young woman can have at her fingertips a device to help her decide when and if she wants to become pregnant. Or, how to avoid pregnancy if she doesn’t. She can even plan a hike along the Oregon trail, certain her period won’t interfere. My “ap” used to be belly bloat.
Of course, some religious zealots will argue the new ap affronts God’s will. Catholic doctrine has opposed contraception from its beginning. The rights of the unconceived child aren’t at stake. What these demonstrators aid and abet is the chauvinistic notion a woman has no right to control her body. I wonder in what passage of the Bible they hope to find a prohibition against aps.
While they search, those who profess concern for fertilized eggs continue to demonstrate outside abortion clinics in increasing numbers. (“Back To Life,” by Nina Liss-Schulz, Mother Jones, October 2018, pg. 8.) That the Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade gives them renewed energy. Besides, being hauled off to jail, only to be freed within a few hours, is a small price to pay for true believers. They see themselves as followers of Mother Theresa who entered the poor houses of Calcutta to give aid. (Ibid, pg. 9) People welcomed her, of course, because she actually alleviated suffering. What the women squatting outside clinics offer is guilt.
Happily, their squatting days are numbered. A cultural change is underway, aided by science — the fertility ap being the latest. Today, it’s a whole new ballgame for young women.
