Most of our culture’s elite storytellers are pro-abortion; that is why “The Pre-Persons” has never been adapted for the screen and has not been republished in nearly four decades. Stories shape culture, and abortion activists own virtually all the major franchises. The past few years have seen the propaganda machine ramp up with a stream of abortion films: The Janes; Unpregnant; Never Rarely, Sometimes Always; Obvious Child. In every story, the pre-born baby—the “un-person”—is utterly absent. 

Few science fiction writers have acquired the pop culture success of Philip K. Dick. The politically promiscuous writer authored 44 novels, over 120 short stories, and saw many of his works adapted for the big and small screen, including Blade Runner, The Man in the High Castle, and Minority Report. But few know that Dick also wrote a savage short story in response to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. That is no surprise—it is difficult to find, having been left out of all but two of his short story collections.

Dick completed “The Pre-Persons” in the months after the US Supreme Court imposed abortion on all fifty states, and Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine published it in October 1974 (I had to track down a copy on eBay to read it). The story, when published, caused a stir; feminist fantasy writer Joanna Russ wrote him with “absolute hate” that she would like to beat him up. He received death threats, too.

Dick was unmoved. “I admit that this story amounts to a special pleading,” he wrote, “and I’m sorry to offend those who disagree with me about abortion on demand…Well, I have always managed to offend people by what I write. Drugs, communism, and now an anti-abortion stand; I really know how to get myself in hot water. Sorry, people. But for the pre-persons’ sake I am not sorry. I stand where I stand: ‘Hier steh’ Ich; Ich kann nicht anders,’ as Martin Luther is supposed to have said.”

It is easy to see why the story, fresh on the heels of the Supreme Court ruling—now, of course, overturned–struck such a raw nerve. Abortion activists had persuaded themselves that Roe v. Wade settled the feticide question. Dick’s story unflinchingly followed their logic to its natural conclusion. If the right to life is contingent on age or some other arbitrary characteristic, what—or who—might be next? “The Pre-Persons,” which takes place in a future America when the abortion limit has been shifted to age twelve, opens with a chilling scene:

Past the grove of cypress trees Walter – he had been playing king of the mountain – saw the white truck, and he knew it for what it was. He thought, That’s the abortion truck. Come to take some kid in for a postpartum down at the abortion place. And he thought, Maybe my folks called it. For me.

The “abortion truck” was not coming for Walter, but his mother’s reassurances reminded me of the rage pro-life activists so often face when displaying abortion victim photos in public. When pro-choice people angrily demand that children be shielded from photos of the procedure that they support, it is in part because they have no good answer to the questions that pro-life signs might elicit from their children. I remember a child asking “Who broke the baby?” while her mother angrily yanked her down the sidewalk.

What was she supposed to say? “I support that, but not for you?” Or as Dick puts it:

‘Listen, Walter,’ Cynthia Best said, kneeling down and taking hold of his trembling hands, ‘I promise, your dad and I both promise, you’ll never be sent to the County Facility…

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