"I had an abortion."

Well, no I didn't have an abortion, but I could buy a tee-shirt that

says I did.

Recently Planned Parenthood began marketing a T-shirt with that cheery slogan

and even some of the Planned Parenthood affiliate clinics are not happy with

the promotion. I can understand why they are upset. The T-shirt states what

has been latent in the minds of many people on both sides of the abortion

debate for quite awhile: Pro-choice really means pro-abortion.

According to an Aug. 2 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article by Scott Williams,

the designer of the shirt, Jennifer Baumgardner, said the T-shirt "is

a bold statement that having an abortion is a medical procedure for which

no apology is needed."

Are we ready for abortion pride?

I fear, ready or not, such a sentiment is on the rise. Just in time for

the T-shirt was a shocking article in the New York Times by Amy Barrett about

abortion-rights advocate Amy Richards who discovered she was pregnant with

triplets.

Her first pregnancy, she was surprised and feeling ill but more than that

she felt three children would be inconvenient. So she decided that she could

not bear to have them all. What to do? Engage in subtraction by abortion.

The math is simple: three minus two is one.

Sad but true, she consulted a specialist and asked, "Can we get rid

of one or two of them?"

Called "selective reduction," this euphemism means that you can

basically eliminate an unwanted fetus even if the baby is healthy.

There were identical twins and a boy in the line of fire. She took the boy

and the doctor took the twins with a shot of potassium chloride to their

beating hearts.

Throughout the article, we are solicited to feel sorry for Ms. Richards

because she just couldn't have a pregnancy with triplets. It would be

so inconvenient; she wouldn't be able to work; she would need bed rest;

she would have to shop at Costco (she really said that). She was feeling

ill and only wanted to eat sour-apple gum.

So despite no threat to her safety or health, keeping all three miracles

would be out of the question.

I cannot imagine being the father in this case. I would look at a sonogram

of three healthy offspring and think, Now which ones do we sacrifice so mom

can work and have no stomach distress?

I wonder what would have happened if the remaining child caused mom to have

gas or worse, PUPPPS, a rash from hell that often afflicts new moms in the

last trimester.

According to Ms. Richards, the remaining pregnancy was "seamless" and

the little guy survived the womb. We could call him lucky. Or we could call

him the last man standing.

I wonder if T-shirt designer Baumgardner has crafted an abortion-pride T-shirt

in maternity sizes. Ms. Richards could have gotten one as a sign of her pride.

Perhaps the maternity version for moms who have "selective reduction" would

have the "I Had An Abortion" slogan across the chest and "Survivor

on Board" across the tummy.

Not a big market now but wait until abortion pride catches on.

I guess I am naive; I didn't realize one could legally engage in "selective

reduction." But I shouldn't be too surprised. Support for such

procedures has helped some people get elected to political office.

We have a presidential candidate that says he believes that life begins

at conception but says he can't impose that truth on others. That of

course would be Senator Kerry whose strength of conviction wilts at the thought

of proud pro-abortion voters staying home.

In a society that tolerates the ethics of selective reduction and calls

it the right to choose, one should expect that eventually people would not

just tolerate callousness but take pride in it.

[Warren Throckmorton is director of college counseling and an associate

professor of psychology at Grove City (Penn.) College. His research, "Initial

Empirical and Clinical Findings Concerning the Change Process for Ex-Gays," was

published in the June 2002 issue of the American Psychological Association's

publication "Professional Psychology: Research and Practice." Learn

about the new documentary "I Do Exist" at www.idoexist.net.]