Karl Pilkington

I've been listening to the Ricky Gervais Show podcast - so funny, I love it!!
(www.rickygervais.com)

Anyways, at one stage Karl Pilkington made a comment that your head can only hold so much information, back when Adam and Eve were knocking about there was no history, and they didn’t have much to remember.

Now, I wonder if he might have made a good point. There is quite a lot to remember these days and you could be forgiven for forgetting some things – even if they are history-making, world changing events.

South Dakota has just passed a law banning abortions (although they still have the death penalty - no executions since 1976). Exceptions will be made if the pregnancy places the women's life at risk.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4780522.stm

No exceptions will be made if conception occurs as the result of incest or rape. When the bill was first proposed risk to the health of the mother was not an exception – which it was pre 1973.

Maybe because there is so much to remember these days the decisions made in 1973 and the reasons for them have been bumped from our collective consciousness for something more recent?? There is a lot going on these days!!

The timing of this new law coincides with a slight change in the balance of the US Supreme Court towards a more conservative approach. Obviously, abortion is still a controversial topic today, 33 years after the Roe v Wade decision, and admittedly there has never been a time when everyone was on side, but is this a decision that should really be made by the State??

I don't necessarily agree with the current situation where we could liken having an abortion to popping down to the GP to have an ugly wart removed from your thumb. It is a serious decision, not one that should be taken lightly and I don’t really think it should be a procedure that can be used to avoid facing the consequences of your actions.

On the other hand, there are many compelling reasons not to bring a child into this world – rape and incest aside, AIDS and poverty are two examples pretty high on my list, and this choice should be a women’s to make.