Q & A in RI -- Abortion

[Guest guest]

In Rhode Island, there were good questions and answers. One woman

asked what mother thought abour abortion. The questioner said she

had friedns who had had abortions and experienced sorrow and guilt

afterward. If they had carried the babies to term, they would have

had other problems.

 

Amma said that she could neither be positive or negative about

abortion. Amma doesn't like to destroy a life. She's against that.

But people must take the circumstances into account.

 

Amma feels that most young people lack discrimination and they they

have to have an abortion. They can't talk tto their families.

Perhaps their families will not care for the baby and they also may

be unable to care for the child.

 

Mother used one of her earthy expressions related to this difficult

issue. She said "Killing a chicken and having an omelette is not the

same." She added that women who have had abortions should not feel

guilty about it.

 

Mother says we should take all aspects of the situation into account.

People come to Mother and say, "I am pregnant but I am not married.

The child will not have a father."

 

Or a woman will say that she already has one retarded child and she

is afraid another child will also give a child with serious problems."

In such situations, Mother will say, "Do what the doctor says. Follow

the dharma of the situation." Swamiji interpreted "dharma" here

as "need." Thus follow the "need" of the situation.

 

Again at the end of the answer Amma stressed that women who have had

abortions shouldn't feel bad. They should just think that it was the

karma of that soul to have such a short life that time.

 

***********

 

I'll try to send more about what Amma said in Q & A in posts

following. This one is such a big issue that it needed to come

first. Amma's answer is a remarkably lucid, sensible reply to a

highly charged question.

 

Aikya