Editor's note. Prior to the Roe v. Wade decision, there
were a number of influential commission reports that pushed either to loosen
protective abortion laws or essentially gut them altogether. One of those
was the 1972 report issued in the 24-member Rockefeller Commission on Population
Growth and the American Future. Headed by a veteran pro-abortionist, John
Rockefeller III, its recommendation for abortion on demand, the American
Medical News reported, "provides prestigious ammunition for opponents
of restrictive state abortion laws."
The most eloquent of the five dissenters was Grace Olivarez. Reprinted
below are excerpts from her remarks.
To brush aside a separate statement on the issue
of abortion on the grounds that it is based on religious or denominational
"hang-ups" is to equate abortion a matter or life and death with
simpler matters of religion such as observance of the Sabbath, dietary restrictions,
abstention from coffee and alcoholic beverages, or other similar religious
observances. I prefer to believe that even nonreligious persons would be
concerned with the issue of life and death, even as to the unborn.
My opposition to legalized abortion is based on several concerns that touch
a variety of issues, not the least of which is the effect such a law would
have on millions of innocent and ill-informed persons.
Rights of the Unborn Child
In relation to the rights of the unborn child,
we seem to be confused as to the meaning of human life before and
after birth. The fetus does not become "a life" at a specific
magic moment in the process of development. Some biologists support the
foregoing and I quote from one of them:
Everyone of the higher animals starts life as a single cell the
fertilized ovum... . The union of two such sex cells (male germ cell and
female germ cell) to form a zygote constitutes the process of fertilization
and initiates the life of a new individual." [Emphasis mine.]
[Bradley M. Patten, Foundations of Embryology (New York: McGraw-Hill,
1964), p. 2.]
Neither is it a "mass of cells," as anyone who has witnessed
an abortion can testify to. Having witnessed some abortions, I would ask
those in favor of abortion to visit any hospital where abortions are performed
and request permission to see an aborted fetus. It will not be intact unless
the abortion was performed by the saline method. Then it will be pickled,
but intact.
"Wanted" and "Unwanted" Fertility
To talk about the "wanted" and the "unwanted" child smacks too much of bigotry and prejudice. Many of us have experienced the sting of being "unwanted" by certain segments of our society. Blacks were "wanted" when they could be kept in slavery. When that ceased, blacks became "unwanted" -- in white suburbia, in white schools, in employment. Mexican-American (Chicano) farm laborers were "wanted" when they could be exploited by agri-business. Chicanos who fight for their constitutional rights are "unwanted" people. One usually wants objects and if they turn out to be unsatisfactory, they are returnable. How often have ethnic minorities heard the statement: "If you don't like it here, why don't you go back to where you came from?" Human beings are not returnable items. Every individual has his/her rights, not the least of which is the right to life, whether born or unborn. Those with power in our society cannot be allowed to "want" and "unwant" people at will.
The Poor in Our Society
I am not impressed nor persuaded by those who express concern for the low-income woman who may find herself carrying an unplanned pregnancy and for the future of the unplanned child who may be deprived of the benefits of a full life as a result of the parents' poverty. ...
Our Future as a Democratic Society
As long as we continue to view abortion as a solution, we will continue to avoid facing the real issue -- that abortion treats the symptom and neglects the disease. When you consider that more than half of all abortions performed in New York were performed on women under 24 years of age (and not on "those unfortunate women who could not face the prospect of still another child"), you begin to get a glimpse of one aspect of the "disease." When you consider the current rush to reform the welfare system because the cost has gotten out of hand supposedly as a result of "all those children being born to those lazy women," but subsidies to profit-making entities suffer not one iota, one begins to get a glimpse of the disease.