Abortion 5: The implications of such legislation

Who gets to decide?

The point I made earlier is that different people have very different views of what is right and wrong when it comes to sex and reproduction. Who should we allow to make this decision for everybody? Catholics? Protestants? Muslims? Free-spirited hippies? Atheists? All of these groups may choose different answers, and if we're going to legislate the issue, then we have to choose ONE to represent everybody. Does that seem fair? How would you feel if you're in the minority group?

The right for a woman to choose what happens to her own body.


This means that a woman gets to choose her sexual and reproductive destiny. It means, she can choose whether or not to take birth control pills, whether or not to have sex with a man without a condom, whether she chooses to take the morning after pill, or whether she chooses to have an abortion.

My belief is that an question this complex should be answered by the woman. And I will support my claim with the question of the shoe being on the other foot.

If you are trying to be responsible with family planning, using birth control or condoms, how would you feel if condoms and birth control became illegal? How would you feel, having to choose between having sex or responsibly controlling the size of your family?

Or, you could look at the other extreme? What if you lived in an intensely over-populated country, and it became so bad that the government mandate was that you could only have one child, and if you became pregnant again, you must get an abortion?

The point is, no matter what the government mandate is, you would probably feel like your personal freedom is being violated, because you can't make decisions about your own body, and the future of your family.

People who are pro-choice are not pro-abortion. It's not that we're trying to subvert potential mothers into aborting their fetuses. It's that we believe in personal freedom. In having the ability to choose what happens to and in your own body. And I don't believe that any government should ever take such freedoms away.


What are the consequences of making abortion illegal?

I believe that criminalizing abortion would have similar effects as prohibition did. It will legitimize a black market, which is always substantially more dangerous than a regulated free market.

What this means is this. Once a woman realizes she is pregnant, depending on her circumstances, she may feel completely helpless. Whatever her reasons are, economic, abuse, rape, etc. - if she feels helpless and trapped, she might think abortion is her only option. And if it is illegal, that might drive her to a back alley to some guy with a coat hanger, or intentionally falling down the stairs. The point is, rather than safely ending the pregnancy, she puts her life in danger. This has been demonstrated through history.


Also, the people who are Pro-Life often fail to weigh societal factors. (Which is understandable if you see abortion as murder.) But without ways to control pregnancies, other issues arise. Over-population, starvation, poverty - these are all exacerbated by unwanted pregnancies. Where one person might look at the situation and say, "It is objectively a good decision to end this pregnancy and wait until you are in a more stable economic standing," a different person may say, "Well, it's a human life, and human life trumps economic troubles."

At some point, we're going to have to step back and realize that we're overpopulating our planet. We're going to run out of farm land, and people are already starving. When deer are over populated, we hunt them to thin out their numbers. But, we see humanity as immune to overpopulation. Does every fetus deserve life, even if we can't sustain the population we already have? Isn't a slow, agonizing death of starvation worse than a swift, painless removal of a non-conscious clump of cells? If we want to care about life, wouldn't it be better to focus on those lives that are already suffering in this world?

If we're going to say that every fetus has a right to life, are we also prepared to legislate that we will make sure that all children have government subsidized access to food, water, shelter, and health care if the parent is unfit to provide it?

I think that if we're going to write legislation to make sure than all the unborn have a chance to live, then we shouldn't abandon them once they're born. And this isn't an attack, but an objective observation - most pro-life people are also opposed to any sort of "socialist" welfare program to help the poor and they're opposed to "socialized" health care. So, once they're alive, they don't care if they're suffering and unable to support themselves.

Many women might look at the world today, the suffering, the over population - or she might look at the family's future, her inability to support the child, the uncertainty of whether the child will have food to eat - and decide that it's not the best time to have a baby.


My point is that what one person calls murder, the next might call being responsible. This is certainly NOT a black and white issue. And I certainly don't feel like any of us are in the position to tell everyone else how they should live their lives, what they should do with their bodies, or to judge them for the decisions they make.

If you are pro-life, you obviously care about life. So, embrace life. Work to make the world a better place for those who are already suffering. Consider being a foster parent or adopting those who are without homes.

But also try to be empathetic of the agonizing decision being made by women who choose to get abortions. It is not flippant. And try to be supportive of them, rather than judgmental and condescending, when you haven't walked in her shoes.


In conclusion, I've come to the decision to be pro-choice by weighing these factors: 1) I want to live in a society where people have control over their own bodies and their own reproductive destiny. I don't want the government telling me what to do with my body, and I can't imagine telling someone else what to do with theirs. 2) I believe that criminalizing abortion would lead to an increase in societal problems, such as overpopulation, poverty, and women dying from coat hanger, back alley abortions.

I will reserve "Abortion 6" for any rebuttals to arguments that are raised as a result of posting this blog, or of any arguments I failed to post in the writing of this blog.