Judging from the state of the world, it’s fair to say that most people should not have children. Most people make lousy parents. Their children, small or grown, are a wreck. They are selfish and self-serving. They are busy killing themselves, each other and our planet, taking many of Earth’s other creatures with them without batting an eyelash.
Children are our great vanity. The world is full of perfectly good ones we could have for free, but we insist on making our own, adding to the misery of children already living in misery.
Into this sorrowful equation comes the absurd notion that, despite our lousy record as a species, we must now protect children who are not yet born, that is, babies who are not even babies yet. I ask you: Could we be any more vain? Could we possibly be any more vain?
I understand that my views are biased by my experience, so let’s get those cards on the table.
I was raised in a Catholic family that attended church each Sunday and recognized the sacraments and the holidays. My mother, who kept a crucifix above her bed and religious icons around the house, nevertheless rejected papal teaching on birth control, the so-called “rhythm method” or “Vatican roulette.”
Mom was the sixth of seven children born into a poor family. Her own mother died when she was six years old. Mom understood the cost of too many children and she told us more than once: “None of you were accidents. Each of you was planned. When it comes to the pope and birth control, I say — (and here she would break into a heavy Italian accent because all popes at the time were Italian) – “You no play-a da game, pope, you no make-a da rules.”
Mom was a junior high school math teacher and my father was a research librarian. Thanks to the GI Bill, my father – born as poor as my mother – was able to earn two college degrees. They raised four sons in a three-bedroom, one bath home and they shared one car.
Mom and dad dreamed we would do better even than they did, that we would be doctors or lawyers and become fabulously successful and happy. That did not happen. We have depression in our family. My brothers became blue-collar workers. Two died by suicide as adults. The third spent nearly a year in a psychiatric ward while in his teens and died of self-neglect at age 65.
All my parents’ children struggled despite the fact that we were raised in one of the best possible families. Mom and dad took us camping, coached our sports teams, helped us with our homework, disciplined us and kept our dental appointments. As far as I can tell, they did almost everything right.
Despite being blessed with great parents, parents who wanted to be parents and loved and nurtured us every inch of the way – we experienced great pain and difficulty. And now, a majority of judges who we’re told are among the brightest people in our nation want to force all pregnant women to bear children?
This is cruelty. My family has struggled with insanity but overturning Roe v. Wade is insanity of the highest order. Six judges suffer a form of viral fundamentalism that kills hope and will destroy families and spread misery. If you understand that, it’s time you start raising some holy hell.