ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 25, 1997 TAG: 9701280108
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARTIN WILLIS
IN JOHN C. LeDoux's Jan. 18 letter to the editor, ``Wanted: a debate on the economic impact of abortion,'' he argues that the United States would have benefited economically if 40 million abortions performed in the past 23 years had not occurred.
Each abortion is both a tragedy and a failure. It's a tragedy because a baby will not be born. This tragedy is weighed against the parents' personal tragedy of an unwanted pregnancy or a planned pregnancy terminated for medical reasons. It must also be weighed against the possible tragedy of a child born unwelcomed into a family that doesn't want it or cannot afford it. To Planned Parenthood, each abortion is a failure of its stated mission: ``Every child a wanted child.''
In our modern capitalistic society, the United States derives the most economic benefit from citizens who are well-educated, well-adjusted and skilled in a trade or profession that contributes to the lofty standard of living we now enjoy. Conversely, the economy is burdened by the expense of maintaining citizens who are unable to sustain themselves in our competitive marketplace.
The Roanoke Times ran an excellent series on the growing problem of teen pregnancy. Many of the 40 million abortions performed during the past 23 years involved young women who were emotionally and/or economically unprepared for parenthood.
Many involved pregnancies of single women whose mate refused to fulfill his obligation to nurture his child. Many involved pregnancies in families that could not afford to support another child. Whatever the reason, a parent or doctor decided in each case the child should not be born.
Statistics conclusively demonstrate that children born among such adverse circumstances have the least chance of economic success. LeDoux's hypothesized additional 40 million unwanted children in the United States may have created a greater economic burden than benefit.
The winners in our business world? The Revs. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson have been telling it right: middle-class and upper-class children born and raised in the traditional heterosexual two-parent family.
LeDoux argues that more people in the workplace would stimulate the economy. But all of America's most successful businesses are downsizing and streamlining. Advances in technology permit them to accomplish more with fewer employees. Ask your ATM machine.
In his letter, he asks us to count 140 persons per hour at the mall and imagine them as the children per hour who are aborted. A cynic would tell him to get stuck in the twice-daily commuter boondoggle on Roanoke Street in Christiansburg or Hershberger Road in Roanoke, and imagine 140 fewer cars in front of him.
In Genesis, God promised Abraham that his seed would multiply as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the beach. God didn't tell Abraham what to do once that had been accomplished.
Every ecosystem has a specific biological carrying capacity, beyond which the ecosystem is overloaded and threatened. We fight to protect our forests, rivers and bays. The irony is that we are fighting to protect them from ourselves.
The world's poorest countries are also the most populous. To preserve our present quality of life, will the United States place mandatory curbs on the size of families? This horrendous notion is already the law in China.
To succeed in today's world, a child needs a loving and supportive family, good health and the best education money can buy. My two biggest charitable donations each year are to the United Way to help those less fortunate than myself and to Planned Parenthood, in the hope that children will be born with the best chance to make it on their own and not need my help.
Martin Willis is vice president of Rockydale Quarries Corp. in Roanoke.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB