Betty Caplan
22 September 2008
opinion
Nairobi — I take great exception to Okoiti Omtatah's contribution; It's Our Collective Duty to Stand Up Against Abortion ((DN September 17, 2008).
At no point did Mr Omtatah exhibit the slightest compassion for the pregnant schoolgirls, who find themselves trapped or deceived into premature motherhood, or for the victims of abuse and rape, whose trauma continues for a lifetime because of the difficulty of procuring a safe abortion in this country.
Is he aware of the huge increase in incidents of rape (and therefore unwanted pregnancies) that occurred during the period of election violence?
His sympathy does not extend to those who have no choice in the hugely important matter of planning their families. Has he heard of the slogan of the abortion movement in the '60s and '70s: Every child, a wanted child?
Firstly, there were the logical inconsistencies: he began with a paean to Barack Obama whom he described as a "perfect candidate for abortion" because his white mother gave birth to him as an unmarried teenager a few months after marrying Obama Snr.
This is a complete red herring; for every wise and wonderful Barack Obama, there could well be a serial murderer, a fraudster, a drug addict or a rapist.
Besides, Mr Omtatah leaves the story mid-stream: his mother found a partner to help her look after the family so that eventually young Barack was able to reap the finest that American education has to offer. Would our writer cite this as a typical case?
Surely, it stands out because it is so extraordinary, not least due to the strength of character Obama showed in exploiting the good things that came his way.
He did definitely not grow up in a family headed by a single woman - the most underprivileged and deprived group in the USA.
Poverty affects a vast range of other factors including emotional, physical and sociological ones.
Secondly, Mr Omtatah went on to laud the humanitarian interventions that underline institutions like the UN.
"In today's human rights conscious world, an enlightened conception of personal interest should encompass human solidarity. Ultimate authority is lodged...in the community of citizens collectively. That is why both men and women have a duty to protect unborn babies."
The writer does not distinguish between the kind of humanitarian intervention necessary in crises like that in Darfur, and unwarranted interference in the very personal matter of whether a woman feels ready and able to bear a child, and just as important, whether she has the financial and emotional support from the father to enable her to bring it up.
Arguments like Mr Omtatah's make me very suspicious: Why such concern about the unborn when there are millions of Aids orphans in this continent, lacking even the most basic of needs?
His argument would make sense if it were consistent - if children are our common property, well and good. Then we look after all those already in existence before we turn our attention to those not yet born.
We have all seen the bundles of rags that pass for children huddled on our streets, witnessed them trying to survive by selling a few nuts and turned our eyes the other way when they knocked on our car windows for a few coins.
Mr Omtatah wants us to have thousands more of these in spite of the suffering they and the society experience at being unable to cater for them. Does that make sense to you?
Once again we have a man holding forth on what women should do with their bodies and their lives.
By coincidence, I read on the very same day an article in the New York Times by one David D. Kirkpatrick entitled; Abortion Issue Again Dividing Catholic Votes, referring to the American election.
Here, the author told us that "a struggle within the church over how Catholic voters should think about abortion is once again flaring up just as political partisans prepare an all-out battle for the votes of Mass-going Catholics in swing-state towns like Scranton, Pa."
Whatever happened to the long and bitter struggle in the West to separate Church and State? After all, the American populace is made up of people of diverse religions and persuasions.
The abortion issue is always there at the top of the list even in countries like the US and Britain where the right to abortion on demand was won many decades ago.
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