Magical Fascism

Despite protests from Governor Mitt Romney, the Massachusetts Legislature recently enacted a law requiring hospitals to dispense “morning after” pills to rape victims likely to become pregnant. Predictably, Catholic hospitals screamed bloody murder, claiming the law goes against their beliefs.

On CNN, Father Williams, a CNN expert, priest and Vatican spokesman, explained that the morning after pill prevents a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus, which makes it a form of abortion, not contraception, and unacceptable to Catholic faith. If the pill simply kept the egg from being fertilized, he noted, the church would not object to its use in cases of rape.

His “faith” somehow dictates that a two-celled zygote not yet implanted in the womb is substantially different than the sperm and egg they were just moments before. It’s worth pointing out that the Bible says nothing specific about this, and in fact seems to condone abortion in at least one of its passages. But regardless, lets be real clear about this: Father Williams is crazy.

Crazy: suggestive of insanity…as if broken in mind. (Websters, 1986)

What has substantially changed at the moment of conception? Has a “divine spark” suddenly been lit in those cells? Has God touched the union of cells with a special magic? Is personhood an instantaneous force that comes into being out of thin air when the sperm and egg join? Does an invisible monster place a little green gremlin into the zygote, transforming it into a human life?

These are all magical, superstitious, childish fantasies. Americans have the right to believe anything they want, but they don't have the right to restrict the actions of others based on their superstitions. Fantasies like these have been infecting human thought since the dawn of the Judeo-Christian-Muslim era. They have nothing to do with reason, observation or common sense, and everything to do with wishful thinking, intellectual dishonesty and myth. To give two cells the same moral status as a living, breathing woman is absurd, and makes no more sense than believing that seventy virgins wait for us in paradise if we kill infidels. It’s all the same kind of crazy.

Of course, there are very good reasons to restrict abortion. For example, a third trimester abortion is almost impossible to justify given the fact that the mother has had ample time to consider the circumstances of her pregnancy, and more importantly, the fact that the fetus is likely viable and approaching some semblance of personhood. After all, personhood is really what matters. And personhood is defined not in mystical terms, but in practical, measurable, observable terms. People feel and think and act. Their value is not potential.

Person: a being characterized by conscious apprehension, rationality, and a moral sense. (Websters, 1986)

Clearly, a zygote has none of the hallmarks of personhood. It is only slightly closer to personhood than a sperm and an egg. The universe even sees fit to abort one in four pregnancies without our help.

Myths and superstitions have caused untold death and suffering to actual people for centuries, lately in the form of Islamic Fundamentalism. But even here at home, crazy individuals have killed doctors to stop them from performing abortions. They believe with absolute conviction the fantasy that conception is magic, which makes them scary and dangerous.

When you put all your faith in magic, very bad things can happen, and often do.