It is woman who bears
the great burden of parenthood, and with her the decision must rest. It
is idle to reply that this is impossible, for it is possible, as there
are not a few happy wives throughout the civilized world to bear
testimony. Every new life that comes into being is to be regarded as
sacred from the first. The accident of birth at a particular stage in
its development does not in the slightest degree affect this ethical
principle, as even the law, for a wonder, recognizes. The full
acceptance of the principle that woman must decide is, I am convinced,
the only right and effective way in which to abolish altogether the
dangers at present run by the life which is at once unborn and unwanted.
The decision must be made once and for all _before_ the new life is
called into initial being, and the last word must lie with her who is to
bear it. I am strengthened in the enunciation of this principle by the
reflection that it would be ridiculed and condemned by the vote of every
public-house and music-hall throughout the civilized world.
Let it be observed that in thus allowing the wife the possession of her
own person, we are giving her only what her husband possesses, and that
her possession of herself is of vastly more moment to her than his own
liberty to him. Nothing more than sheer equality is being claimed for
her, and the claim in her case has a double strength, since it is made
valid not only by her own interests but by those of the future.
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