Choosing For God

It's not often we take the time to deal with abortion here (mainly because it's not one of our big issues, but also because, in America today, being pro-life, apparently, means that you must hate condoms, birth-control, and women, and will be ready to breath Baptist Hellfire upon those who disagree; and, frankly, I just tire of dealing with that stupidity), but today will be an important exception, given this news that recently came out of the socialist paradise Sweden.

For the record, we don't support abstinence-only stuff, but rather, the comprehensive approach, while also being of the opinion that, really, it's not the government's job to teach kids that kind of stuff anyways. Furthermore, sparing you our usual discussion of how freedom is intricately linked with the responsibility to take the consequences of the choices you make with said freedom, we'll also simply note that choosing to have sex means you have to accept the consequences of sex, up to and including pregnancy. Basically, too often, abortion becomes a bailout for people who are too stupid to either control their urges or figure out how to use a condom properly; and, well, you know how we feel about bailouts....

(Before you get the impression that we're some kind of asshole robot, with no ability to perceive the true complexities of life, please note that we do believe in exceptions for rape and when the mother's life is in danger.)

Anyways, back to the Swedes. Ah, yes, those wonderful Swedes and their wonderful socialist government. Only, now, that government has gone so far as to give its citizens the genuine opportunity to play God. You see, since abortion is legal in Sweden for the first 18-weeks of the woman's pregnancy (Somewhere in the '2nd Trimester' in American legal lingo), the Swedish Courts have now ruled that women can now 'choose' to abort or not based solely on the gender of the child. Meaning that gender-based abortion, or the ability to choose the sex of the child you raise, is not only available, but has the full legal backing of Swedish Courts.

Too bad all of the Kings and Queens of yore didn't have this option, because then they wouldn't have had to bother raising all those damned daughters, they could have just killed everything until they got that coveted 1st-born son!

But hey, why should we worry? Afterall, those Europeans have all but forgotten about God - they've moved beyond that stupid idea - so why not start to take over his job?

On a more serious note, the idea that one could select the gender of one's child (for that's what they've, essentially, been given the power to do) does reek of the 'playing God' dilemma that we seem to, increasingly, run into these days. Moreover, the simple fact of the matter is that allowing people to gender-select their children is a terrible idea. Don't believe me? Just ask the Chinese, who, using a combination of abortion, infanticide, and forced sterilization, have ridden their 'one-child' policy, and the historical preference for male offspring, to a massive gender imbalance. In other words, they've been using gender-based abortion, and it got them 30 million excess dudes.

Now, maybe Sweden, progressive nation that it is, won't, as a result of this ruling, have a massive (and dangerous) gender imbalance in 20 years - but that's not the point. The point is that bad, unexpected, and unintended things happen when governments and citizens try to play the role of God and manufacture the kind of children that they want. Obviously, abortion in the United States has not gotten to such a place, yet. Nevertheless, examples like China and now Sweden are exactly why we should be trying our best to limit abortion and tighten the legal restrictions around it. That's because, simply put, when the 'choices' you get to make should really be God's, well, that's just an awfully slippery slope.