Child-Proofing, Speeding Tickets, and Where Babies Come From

My latest love (read: procrastination enabler) is Pintrest.  This morning, I discovered this gem:

(Note: I'm not sure how linking to people on Pintrest works, but I'm going to try here.  Let me know if  this works!)

It's funny, right?  I'm sure normal people see it and chuckle and go on with their days.  Problem: I'm not normal.  So I see this and immediately think of freshman year intro to philosophy and abortion/contraception.  One day in class we had a discussion about abortion with many analogies and comparisons, from Judith Jarvis Thompson's unconscious violinist, to her baby-spores, to wearing seat belts.  Wendy and I got into it with a classmate (so much so that seven years later, a classmate I hadn't talked to since that class ended mentioned it to me at a recent re-encounter).  As we left, Wendy exclaimed: "I don't think she knows where babies come from!"

I don't think our classmate expressed an unusual confusion.  With contraception, we modern ladies are taught to baby-proof our houses.  "If you do this, then you will not get pregnant."  Not "sex causes pregnancy."  No wonder then that babies come as surprises.  No wonder then that abortion seems necessary.  (Note: I know not all abortions result from failed contraception.  I just content that a certain attitude about abortion is prevalent due to contraception.)  After all, if I baby-proof my house, a baby has no right to get in!

If we accept the second statement above ("sex causes pregnancy") as truth, then we realize that we cannot baby-proof our houses.  Sure, one doesn't always get a baby after having sex, but pregnancy is a natural consequence of sex.  This means that if I am having sex, I have no right to be not-pregnant.  I realize this is a radical (and some would say anti-feminist) statement.  But I hold to it.  If I am not sexually active, then I have every right to be not-pregnant.

Although this is a problematic analogy, I want to compare it to speeding.  I speed all the time.  I have never gotten a ticket.  However, if I get pulled over for driving 68 in a 55 zone, I can't complain about an injustice.  I engaged in an action (speeding) and reaped the consequences (a ticket).  Not everyone gets a ticket every time he or she speeds, and many people decide the action is worth the risk and engage in it anyway.  We learn "safe-speeding" (stay under reckless, know where the cops tend to hide, stay with traffic, etc.) to reduce the chances of getting pulled over.  But we still know it could happen.

Now think of how many people spend time trying to get out of traffic tickets.  Even if they were doing 48 over in a 25 zone.  A certain lack of personal responsibility characterizes more of our lives than just speeding.  It spreads over everything, even (maybe especially) sexuality.  And it feeds into the feeling that we need abortion.  We need a way to avoid responsibility for the consequences of our actions.