Title: Semblance Protective
Author: Trialia
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Rating: T
Word Count: 525
Beta: Cincoflex
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Laura Roslin
Spoilers: Captain's Hand
Challenge: majoritython, prompt 'separation of church and state'
Summary: In some situations, one really has no choice.
xxx
Dr. Gaius Baltar's calculations. She detests the man, mustn't show it. Doesn't trust him. On the down-low, as Admiral Adama calls it, she asks Bill to have Mr. Gaeta check the numbers with the data gathered on births, deaths and related statistics in the fleet.
The results serve only to make her feel even worse.
He was right. At the rate they're losing people, the human race will simply fade into extinction within the next eighteen years. And that's if they don't lose any more people to Cylon attacks, something she is certain won't happen. Their dwindling medical supplies can't handle the weight of a pandemic, should one spread throughout the fleet.
It's unavoidable, the fact spinning in her head. The fleet, and humanity, will die out in less than 18 years' time, unless something can be done.
Laura knows that many people don't want to bring a child into their present situation, and she knows why. People are waiting for Earth.
But… what if it takes them too long to find it?
There's only one solution that really lends itself, as far as she can see; she hates the bare thought of it. Her nausea at the idea of doing what almost everyone is telling her she needs to do is profound: she can't stand the thought of denying even one woman control over her own body, let alone making a general statement to the effect that she will. She won't, she's sure. She can't.
Caught in irresolution, Laura thanks the gods that the crisis is not on her doorstep; that she has enough time to think. Not the full eighteen years, but… enough. Even Bill Adama seems convinced that they must ban abortion if they're to survive, quoting her own words back to her.
Until Rya Kibby is brought to her attention: a young, pregnant and terrified stowaway, begging to be allowed an abortion against the wishes of her parents. It makes her decision that much harder, but forces the President to reach a conclusion.
If she does not make abortion illegal in the fleet, as a race humanity will die out before they ever reach their 'promised land'. She knows her decision will be seen as pandering to the one ultra-religious colony of the Twelve, but that is a lesser consideration, now.
There is simply no choice.
But she'll give Rya back a measure of control over her own body, as a last act of regret for what she knows must be done. No matter what Sarah Porter and the Gemenese think of her for doing so. That girl's suffered enough.
Laura may see the literal truth of the scriptures in her visions, but she's still Caprican, and as such, despite the proclaimed unity of the Colonies and their people post-genocide, she is at odds with many of the Gemenese interpretations of law and religion. Children being 'property' of their parents… that's one of them.
Rya is nobody's property, despite her youth. Her choice should be her decision to make, and as her decision, be legally binding.
It is.
But after this, when it comes to abortion, no one else's will be.
-fin