John Karls’ Super-Religious Mother’s Approval of Abortion

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A very-readable text of Roe v. Wade is contained in a Microsoft Word file that is embedded in Q&A-10 of the Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz that are posted in this section.
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johnkarls
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Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

John Karls’ Super-Religious Mother’s Approval of Abortion

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When it comes to abortion (as with many social issues), public opinion often assumes that the Roman Catholic Church speaks for Protestant Churches as well.

And certainly that the RCC speaks for its own members -- which, of course, is NOT true on such issues as birth control as demonstrated consistently by polls of American Catholics for at least the half century since The Pill became popular.

So please imagine my shock and surprise to learn my own mother’s attitude toward abortion.

First, some background.

Both of my parents were super-religious. Though an attorney and banker, my father still holds the international record for the number of Quadrennial Conferences governing the national/international United Methodist Church attended as an official delegate = 13 over more than half a century.

And my mother was as much a Moving Force as he was, both inside the UMC and in community activities outside the UMC -- being selected Citizen of the Year on many occasions for Saginaw MI, a city of about 150,000 at the time including unincorporated suburbs.

But, more importantly, she was a Moving Force by working tirelessly and for long hours for many years in an organization that she had conceived and then spearheaded to assist unwed teenage mothers.

So please imagine this.

My family of origin used to have week-long family reunions until my generation’s own children had left home for boarding school and/or college.

Though you probably wouldn’t be too surprised that Yours Truly usually proposed political issues as topics of conversation at the dinner table during those reunions.

However, for several years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, Yours Truly did not raise the topic of abortion at these family gatherings because he assumed that due to everyone’s religiosity, everyone would be opposed to abortion.

And, accordingly, because he did not want to risk discussing a topic vis-à-vis which he and his wife had obtained an abortion before marriage and before Roe v. Wade (please see the concurrent essay on that subject posted on this bulletin board).

However, a few years after Yours Truly’s children were born (1979 and 1982), Yours Truly decided to ask his mother for her views when we were the only two left in the house cleaning up after a family-reunion dinner.

She broke into tears and blurted out that in her community activities she had seen so many unwanted children brought into this world, and had seen how much pain and suffering such children are forced to endure, that she firmly believed that abortion was far preferable from both a moral viewpoint and from the viewpoint of Christ’s TWO Commandments for “Inheriting Eternal Life” (“Love the Lord Thy God With All Thy Heart and With All Thy Soul and With All Thy Strength and With All Thy Mind AND LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF” whereupon immediately follows the parable of the Good Samaritan to illustrate the universal meaning of “Thy Neighbor” to include EVERYONE).

She was so distraught that I did not push the conversation any further.

Though I often wondered in the years that followed whether her views on abortion (as well as birth control) were influenced by her first-hand experience with animal functions growing up on a farm.

And, no, I never did ask my father for his views on abortion. Perhaps because I did not want to risk causing dissension between them. Since, after all, my paternal grandfather had been a public-school janitor so my father probably did not have the same life experiences as my mother.

Though I often wondered in the years since his demise a few days after 9/11 whether my parents didn’t have their own private discussions regarding such issues. And during the 8 years following my mother’s demise 5.5 years after his, have decided that I would be just as surprised and shocked when I learned my mother’s views on abortion, to learn that my parents did NOT discuss such issues between themselves and see “eye to eye.”

[In this regard, those of you who know me, have often remarked that I have the Gift of Gab, though my children would call it a Curse rather than a Gift. Psychologists say that your personality is 90% your mother’s personality if you spent most of your pre-school years under the influence of the “watchful eye” of your mother. And everyone who grew up on a farm before the advent of radio, much less television, had to entertain themselves by gabbing after a long day’s work. The reason for mentioning all this is that until her demise, I always used to gab with my mother on the phone for at least an hour or so every week, so except for her views on abortion, I knew her pretty well!!!]

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