Choose adoption over abortion

The latest dust-up over abortion is a sad commentary on the confused state of contemporary thinking on moral issues.
If abortion were to be made illegal, of course there would have to be penalties. That’s one of the things law is all about. The abortionist (that is, the doctor who performed the abortion) would be the criminal, and he would naturally have to suffer the penalty.
The Trump statement claims that the woman undergoing the abortion would be the victim of the crime. As Trump himself would say, “Excuse me?” The woman would not be the victim. The unborn foetus in her womb would be the victim. The woman would be an accessory to the crime, because presumably she requested the abortion, or at least consented to it. But because the trauma of the abortion, the opprobrium of society, and the consequent lifelong guilt feelings ought to be punishment enough, human compassion requires that she not be made to suffer further.
Legal issues aside, the whole question of abortion can be easily resolved by referring to an ancient moral dictum that has long been forgotten by our trendy, switched-on world. That is the Golden Rule: as enunciated by Jesus, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”; as enunciated by Confucius, “Do not do to others what you would not desire yourself.” Ask yourself if you would want to have been aborted when you were a foetus in the womb. If the answer is no, do not presume to inflict that fate on others.
There remains the question of what the mother should do with the child if she doesn’t want it or is incapable of taking care of it. There are enough married couples on this planet who want a child but can’t have one to make the answer obvious. Give the child up for adoption to surrogate parents who will love, cherish, and care for it. That should ensure a happy ending for everybody.
Observer