Some time ago, last year, a woman was arrested for dumping her child in a rain water gutter. I heard about it on a radio show while driving to work. I believe it was a new born (a day after discharge from hospital, and that’s usually 24h after delivery) and she let it die there. The mother was a poor woman, illiterate, teenage, and from the previously disadvantaged community here in Cape Town, South Africa. Anyhow, radio callers called in and most were upset by it, but many in addition to being upset, stated that she could have had a simple abortion and not have gone through the shock of having to abandon her new born baby.
Some people blamed the nursing staff who are usually anti-abortion and who don’t readily push abortion or who look down on women undergoing abortion procedures. I should say that most of the people who called in where white and English in heritage.
I brought up the paradox of “poor woman should have had an abortion instead of just abandoning her child to die” (after all a dead baby is a dead baby) to some colleagues at work. Only the Muslim woman sided with me (albeit secretly). The Christian people, quite feminist said, it was OK and how dare I, being a guy (who does not sleep around and does not impregnate innocent girls but anyway) comment about the issue. The baby was not considered at all, only the feelings of the young mother were important.
Of course I’ve delivered my fair share of teenage girls - some as young as 12-13 yo in my younger years and have worked in virtual war zones. I guess I have absolutely no clue about social problems.
Bah, humbug.