This is the seventh in a series discussing how characters in The Shamra Chronicles would deal with current hot-button issues and pressures that confront today’s teens. Would Dara have an abortion?
In Shamra society marriage, bearing and raising children was the accepted practice and clerics who governed Shamra society put enormous pressure on all to adhere to traditional values. Dara, however, always felt like an outcast, and in Shamra Divided she learns that her ancestors had been banished, two hundred years earlier, when the Shamra moved to a new homeland. Dara had been part of a warrior/hunter clan whose values differed greatly from those espoused by the ruling clerics. Dara’s ancestors, leaders of the Stone Mountain Shamra, had a harsh life, living on a mountain and fighting a race that greatly outnumbered them. For Dara’s family procreation was a necessity to insure their family would continue to lead their clan. While not promiscuous, romance and marriage took a backseat to survival. Few of Dara’s female ancestors married, though all bore children. Dara, herself, had no amorous desires when she reached puberty. Pilla, her close friend and soulmate, being more traditional was to marry the day the Shamra were attacked and enslaved. She continually told Dara that she would one day find a male to cherish and marry. But, as Pilla prepared for marriage, Dara scoffed at the idea she would
ever find a male she would fall in love with (and find a male who would abide by her un-Shamra-like behavior).
With this in mind if contemporary Dara became pregnant she would accept the consequences of her actions and have her baby. She would keep her baby feeling she could raise a child better than any stranger. She would not consider marriage to the father. Getting pregnant had nothing to do with love and marriage. She would decide the father’s role in the rearing of her child. But Dara would not oppose abortion. She would feel that it was a woman’s choice what to do under such circumstances. Her personal
view would be if she was foolish enough to engage in unprotected sex she would have to face the music rather than taking the easy way out. Yet she would accept the decisions of others whether it be to have an abortion or have the baby and give it up for adoption. She would involve herself in the pro-choice movement, adamant that no religious group or others who opposed abortion would have a say in what a woman did with her body. And, Pilla would be right beside her. She, too, would accept the consequences for risky sexual behavior—she would have and rear her child if she became pregnant.
What Would Dara Do?: Part 7
In Shamra society marriage, bearing and raising children was the accepted practice and clerics who governed Shamra society put enormous pressure on all to adhere to traditional values. Dara, however, always felt like an outcast, and in Shamra Divided she learns that her ancestors had been banished, two hundred years earlier, when the Shamra moved to a new homeland. Dara had been part of a warrior/hunter clan whose values differed greatly from those espoused by the ruling clerics. Dara’s ancestors, leaders of the Stone Mountain Shamra, had a harsh life, living on a mountain and fighting a race that greatly outnumbered them. For Dara’s family procreation was a necessity to insure their family would continue to lead their clan. While not promiscuous, romance and marriage took a backseat to survival. Few of Dara’s female ancestors married, though all bore children. Dara, herself, had no amorous desires when she reached puberty. Pilla, her close friend and soulmate, being more traditional was to marry the day the Shamra were attacked and enslaved. She continually told Dara that she would one day find a male to cherish and marry. But, as Pilla prepared for marriage, Dara scoffed at the idea she would
ever find a male she would fall in love with (and find a male who would abide by her un-Shamra-like behavior).
With this in mind if contemporary Dara became pregnant she would accept the consequences of her actions and have her baby. She would keep her baby feeling she could raise a child better than any stranger. She would not consider marriage to the father. Getting pregnant had nothing to do with love and marriage. She would decide the father’s role in the rearing of her child. But Dara would not oppose abortion. She would feel that it was a woman’s choice what to do under such circumstances. Her personal
view would be if she was foolish enough to engage in unprotected sex she would have to face the music rather than taking the easy way out. Yet she would accept the decisions of others whether it be to have an abortion or have the baby and give it up for adoption. She would involve herself in the pro-choice movement, adamant that no religious group or others who opposed abortion would have a say in what a woman did with her body. And, Pilla would be right beside her. She, too, would accept the consequences for risky sexual behavior—she would have and rear her child if she became pregnant.