Did You Know George Orwell Was Pro-Life on Abortion?

Did You Know George Orwell Was Pro-Life on Abortion?

by Catherine Shenton | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 11/12/13 3:55 PM

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“Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” — George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language,” 1946

This was going to be a post about the importance of clarity in language and freedom of expression, full of all sorts of quotes from George Orwell, whose writing very effectively highlights the dangers of censorship and the ugliness of using euphemism to defend the indefensible. Just to be sure, I googled “George Orwell abortion”, in case he had made some wildly pro-abortion statement that I hadn’t heard of, but that could undermine the point of what I was writing.

And then I was surprised. Because the most I was hoping for was no comment from Orwell on the topic, and at worst to be disappointed but not altogether surprised that a favourite author supports abortion.

Instead, what I found was a page full of references to his novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936). So I read it. Gordon Comstock, the protagonist spends most of the book raging ineffectually against the society in which he lives and refusing to sell out by getting what everyone around him considers to be a “good” job. The book is mostly a social criticism, and (in my opinion) nowhere near as good as Nineteen Eighty-Four or Animal Farm.

But what does a would-be socialist living in 1930s London have to do with abortion? Near the end of the novel, Gordon’s girlfriend Rosemary tells him she’s pregnant. She offers to get rid of the baby. Her co-worker knows of a doctor who’ll do this for five pounds, knows people who’ve been there. Gordon’s instinctual reaction, however, is, “Whatever happens we’re not going to do that. It’s disgusting!”

That evening he goes to a public library. He had some vague ideas about pregnancy, but he wants to know what’s really going on inside Rosemary. As he looks at diagrams in a book—a human developing, at nine weeks, and at six weeks. We read:

Read More: http://www.lifenews.com/2013/11/12/did-you-know-george-orwell-was-pro-life-on-abortion/