I have always felt sorry for the mother who has an abortion; she is a victim. It is hard not to succumb to the incessant messaging that is so ubiquitous today: sexual activity outside marriage is a good, it is a hard-won freedom that the modern world has bestowed upon women. There are certain lifestyle choices to favor and certain ones to revile, and abortion is a safety net needed in the battle for sexual freedom.

From age 12 on up, a girl will be required to learn the complicated consent formulas, and discouraged, perhaps mocked, for holding onto the more traditional consent formula: the one of yester-year in the form of “I do” expressed during the exchange of marriage vows. In spite of the human failures that have marred it, it still is the only consent formula that holds water better than a sieve.

If an adult in an educational institution would single out a young female and constantly inform her of her government bestowed rights to consent to sexual intercourse, it would have a bad smell. If the same individual continuously brought up the topic of condoms, their availability and functionality and advised the girl that the values of her parents were suspect, things would start to reek. Let’s say the same adult would get the girl to mistrust her own intuition and judgement. She is not conversant in the 14 new gender pronouns? Horrors, this is a pathology. Fortunately, the adult will be a lighthouse of wisdom and discernment steering the boat through the choppy waters of adolescence. Ze/they may be disorientated for a while, but if ze/they places zir/their trust in the knowledgeable adult’s judgement, then with time ze/

they will learn via osmosis.

However, it is not one adult who is giving incessant, unwarranted, unwanted and intrusive recommendations to a girl concerning her blossoming sexuality. That would be harassment. Instead, it comes from an oligarchy of governments, NGOs, media, the entertainment industry, the educational system and the list goes on. The oligarchy has its say non-stop on what sexual values and narratives the upcoming generation must give their allegiance to. And with each passing year, the new normal seems to be more and more hostile to "the past." Some day soon, love, marriage and baby carriages will be revolutionary acts. Fortunately, the young have always tended towards rebellion. There is hope in that!