Editor, The Commercial:
There is a strange dichotomy between pornography and abortion.
For the longest time, laws banned outright any depiction, by word or image, of human reproduction. Yet the appeal of the topic eventually led to the dissolution of most of those laws, for both words and images. Indeed, modern technology now allows a lone female to produce pornographic content without even the hint of another living being present. On the plus side, the chances of this leading to pregnancy are basically nil.
However, on those occasions when the woman decides it takes two to tango, and the outcome is conception, nothing that has taken place up to that point indicates that she has forsaken her will to use her body as she sees fit, and nothing she has done, or not done, transfers that decision-making power to anyone else.
I do not support abortions, but I will never face that decision; I’m not built that way. Likewise, I cannot see where I, or anybody else, has any right to dictate to any woman his/her view on the matter. She has, and should continue to possess, free will … or free won’t.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
D.H. RIDGWAY,
PINE BLUFF