So I've been thinking about writing a post on this topic for a while now, but haven't (as well as generally kept my mouth shut when the subject arises among my pro-choice friends) because, to be honest, I'm afraid of conflict. I'm a huge people pleaser and get my feelings hurt somewhat easily, and so I'm frankly been pretty terrified of the schoolyard bully tactics on both sides of the political spectrum in my generation of citizens. It seems that the point in most 20-somethings' political discussions isn't what idea is better, or what policy could be more effective, or even what is morally right. Instead it's about just how stupid you can make the other person feel, and how irrefutably superior you can make your position sound at the expense of the other position's weak points.
I'm not about that. I'm about rational, respectful discussions that lead, or at least attempt to lead, to solutions. With that being said, these are my thoughts on abortion and the pro-life/pro-choice debate. It is nothing more and nothing less than what I believe, so whether you agree or not, please...don't be mean.
I think abortion is wrong. Depending on how you look at it, that is either predictable because I'm a Christian or surprising because I'm a young woman who believes in female empowerment. So here's the thing: I do believe in female empowerment. What I don't believe in is anyone, female or male, being empowered to take a life for any reason other than self-defense. I believe that is an act of murder. That being said, these are the most common pro-choice arguments that I've heard, and my responses to them:
1. I have a right to make a choice concerning my own body. Yes, you do. But choosing to abort a pregnancy doesn't just affect your body; it affects another body as well, small though it may be. Therefore, your right to do absolutely anything you want to your body is temporarily suspended for the time that you are physically, consequently linked with another human being. That's just how nature works. For example, we all have the "right" to hold a knife in our right hand and make a slashing motion with it, so long as all we're slashing is air. But the moment we take that knife and slash another person with it, we are committing assault. The exercising of our right has trampled on someone else's right, and the only reason abortion is a "gray area" in this respect is because unborn children can't speak out on their own behalf.
The other problem I have with this argument is that it seems to point to the choice to either keep or terminate a pregnancy as the only choice involved in the whole process. What about the choice to have sex? That was also a choice (except in the case of rape, which I'll get to later), and one that has the possible consequence of pregnancy. This is a little more speculative, but I don't understand how we as a culture have gotten to a place where we think we can completely and totally divorce [heterosexual] sex from procreation. I believe that we have a right to monitor and control our fertility as we are able, but how can we expect to have sex whenever we want and only get pregnant when it's convenient, to enjoy an action indefinitely without accepting any of the consequences? We don't use this kind of logic in any other scenario that I can think of. We don't play a scratch-off lottery game and then expect to get our money back when we don't win. The clerk would laugh at us, because it's obvious that not winning was a risk you took when you made the choice to spend your money on a lottery ticket.
2. A fetus isn't human; life begins at birth. When "life" begins is ultimately an opinion. It can't be proven either way by science because people have differing definitions of what "life" consists of. I will say this, though, that although our culture currently says that life begins at birth, we very rarely act like it does in any situation outside of arguing for abortion. Otherwise, why would parents grieve over miscarriages? Why would they bother to read to their pregnant bellies, or play music for their fetuses? Why would people get so incredibly offended by images of aborted fetuses if they aren't even human?
3. Abortion controls over-population. So does famine, genocide, and war, but that doesn't make those things good or morally acceptable. The ends do not justify the means.
4. If abortion were made illegal, many women would try to obtain them illegally and risk dangerous procedures that could hurt or kill them. It makes absolutely no sense to legalize something to protect the safety of those who would break the law. That's like saying we should legalize bank robberies because many bank robbers injure themselves trying to flee the scene.
5. What about rape and instances where the mother's life is in danger? Both of these situations are horribly tragic, to begin with, and any decision made regarding them is going to come with some amount of pain and suffering. Here's the way I see it: If a pregnancy is causing a mother's life to be in danger, then that unborn baby is in effect threatening another person's life. I think they call this an "innocent agressor." In that case, I believe the mother has the right to abort the baby in an act of self-defense, to protect her life. In the case of rape, the woman's choice over whether or not she wanted to have sex is taken, violently and horribly, away from her. This is probably the hardest scenario of all, because although I believe that a woman has a right to terminate a pregnancy caused by rape, my heart still breaks because an innocent child (in addition to the innocent woman) has been made to take the punishment for someone else's despicable actions.
6. Pro-lifers should only try to end abortion if they are willing to provide care for all the unwanted babies it will produce. Pro-life advocates are in no way responsible for the care of un-aborted babies any more than Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe were responsible for fixing the cotton industry after emancipation. You don't excuse a wrongdoing just because it's too much of a hassle to change your ways.
7. So what do you suggest, then? Again, not that I think I am obligated to have all the answers before lobbying to end abortion, but I do think better and earlier sex education in public schools is a good place to start, and not abstinence-only programs. I also think more information should be made available to people about adoption, and that more federal and state funding should be providing in order to make the system work as well as possible.
And that's it, really. That's what I think. And although my Christian faith hugely informs my personal beliefs about all political issues, I consciously didn't factor that faith into this defense because honestly, I would be against abortion even if I weren't a Christian. To me, the whole things stems from one premise that is consistent among nearly every culture on earth: that murder is wrong.
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4 comments:
First off, even though I ultimately disagree with you, I promise to be nice. You make a lot of arguments on why abortion is a bad thing, and I agree with all of them. It's a terrible situation, and a terrible tragedy when a life is taken before birth. I think mostly the sadness comes because an unborn child is the stuff of raw potential. Unlike Schrodenger's cat, who is both dead and not dead, an unborn child is everyone, simultaneously, because they are not yet anyone.
That being said, I'm pro-choice. Not being pro-life doesn't make me pro-abortion, it's about an unwillingness to let government dictate morality or personal choices as personal as procreation. It's the same reason I'm anti-death penalty. Do I think some crimes are so heinous that no amount of rehabiliation will save that person, that they are diseased tissue that should be cut away? Yes, sadly. But I don't think that's the purview of the government.
That was beautiful, Nikki. Good job and well formulated. I agree with everything, so I'm just going to add a few more lines to strengthen your (our) argument.
1 & 2. The reason most feminists are on this kick about their right to an abortion is because women have been trampled for so many years that, now that they finally have some power, they want to defend it no matter what the cost (even if it means oppressing another group, i.e. the unborn). This whole argument that fetuses "aren't human" was also used to justify slavery under the idea that the same held true for black people.
3. That defense is an incomplete statement. The sentence should read, "Abortion controls overpopulation of minorities." Planned Parenthood was originally a Nazi agenda. When we start viewing children as possessions, we start doing like the Chinese and, since we can only have one child, abort our females; this has led to the case where China has 125 million MORE males than females (i.e. half of America).
4 & 6. It is behind this defense that I believe it's too late to outlaw abortion, meaning we Christians have to work harder in other areas, such as Crisis Pregnancy Centers and Sex Education.
Good argument on #6.
Thanks, Bryan and Zech, for the comments. I respect both of you a lot, differ though we may. =)
I also agree with your post... well thought-out.
My issue in the pro-life/pro-choice debates comes with the presidential election, and is in no way directed at anyone in particular, as I have no idea where you stand politically.
I have a problem with people who will vote Republican in a presidential election simply because they are pro-life, even if they feel like the other side has better economic, defense, health-care plans, etc. And I know such people exist... in my own family even. While I think the idea of having a president who is pro-life is wonderful, the fect is, the president has no control over such matters. Bush has been in office for 8 years and hasn't ended abortion, because he doesn't have the authority to... same with gay marriage. There are more states that allow it now than before he took office.
There are so many things messed up with our country right now, I just wish people would think and research enough to know what the president does and doesn't have power to change when deciding who to vote for.
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