Open Post On Abortion
By request, I am blogging (in a very general manner) on abortion. I suppose given my views on a variety of other topics, some of you might find them interesting.
1- I believe in the right of a woman to choose whether or not to have a baby. Society should not have the right to tell an individual what they can and can't do with their own body. Let me stress that I am for legal abortions.
2- However, I personally find abortion to be morally difficult to justify. It's difficult to characterize a fetus as anything other than a human life, and human life is precious and should not be cast aside lightly. I would never openly encourage abortions- I'd rather urge adoption for those who don't have the resources to care for a baby.
3- Abortion involves a clash of rights between the right of the fetus to live and the right of the woman to make choices about her body. Yes abortion is the taking of a life, but law and morality have always recognized certain types of situations when the taking of a life is permissible. Pregnancy is a hardship on a woman, and a woman should not be forced to remain pregnant against there will. Imagine a man came into your kitchen uninvited, sat down, and said he planned on remaining there for the next 9 months. (And imagine, there are no police to get him out, and the only way to get him out and stop him from eating your food would be to kill him.) Would killing that man under those circumstances be justified? Morally, I'd say yes and no. I wouldn't fault someone who did, but I don't think I'd do it myself. This is about where abortion lies on the moral scale.
4- In the Constitutional realm, Roe v. Wade is a horrible decision that can't be justified by any honest method of Constitutional interpretation. It's a purely result oriented decision.
5- I think the abortion debate is not as absolute as pro-deathers and anti-choicers make it out to be. Virtually no one favors abortions at 8&1/2 months, and virtually no one is opposed to early abortions in the case of rape or incest. What's my point? I think that the anti-choicers recognize that abortion under some circumstances is permissible, even though you would be killing a human life. And I think that the pro-deathers recognize that a fetus is a life, at least to some extent, or at some point during pregnancy.
6- I think both pro-deathers and anti-choicers fail to realize the consequences of their positions. Both sides can get fanatical. You can be pro-choice and find abortion to be reprehensible. And you can appreciate the pro-life viewpoint without wanting to make abortion illegal. Why do I say pro-death and anti-choice? Because neither the pro-death or anti-choice activists seem to recognize the importance of both freedom and life.
7- My view on abortion comes from the same place as my view on drugs, sex, food, and any other personal decisions dealing with our own bodies. We all have our own moral codes we follow, but we shouldn't force those moral codes upon anyone else.
Comments welcome.
1- I believe in the right of a woman to choose whether or not to have a baby. Society should not have the right to tell an individual what they can and can't do with their own body. Let me stress that I am for legal abortions.
2- However, I personally find abortion to be morally difficult to justify. It's difficult to characterize a fetus as anything other than a human life, and human life is precious and should not be cast aside lightly. I would never openly encourage abortions- I'd rather urge adoption for those who don't have the resources to care for a baby.
3- Abortion involves a clash of rights between the right of the fetus to live and the right of the woman to make choices about her body. Yes abortion is the taking of a life, but law and morality have always recognized certain types of situations when the taking of a life is permissible. Pregnancy is a hardship on a woman, and a woman should not be forced to remain pregnant against there will. Imagine a man came into your kitchen uninvited, sat down, and said he planned on remaining there for the next 9 months. (And imagine, there are no police to get him out, and the only way to get him out and stop him from eating your food would be to kill him.) Would killing that man under those circumstances be justified? Morally, I'd say yes and no. I wouldn't fault someone who did, but I don't think I'd do it myself. This is about where abortion lies on the moral scale.
4- In the Constitutional realm, Roe v. Wade is a horrible decision that can't be justified by any honest method of Constitutional interpretation. It's a purely result oriented decision.
5- I think the abortion debate is not as absolute as pro-deathers and anti-choicers make it out to be. Virtually no one favors abortions at 8&1/2 months, and virtually no one is opposed to early abortions in the case of rape or incest. What's my point? I think that the anti-choicers recognize that abortion under some circumstances is permissible, even though you would be killing a human life. And I think that the pro-deathers recognize that a fetus is a life, at least to some extent, or at some point during pregnancy.
6- I think both pro-deathers and anti-choicers fail to realize the consequences of their positions. Both sides can get fanatical. You can be pro-choice and find abortion to be reprehensible. And you can appreciate the pro-life viewpoint without wanting to make abortion illegal. Why do I say pro-death and anti-choice? Because neither the pro-death or anti-choice activists seem to recognize the importance of both freedom and life.
7- My view on abortion comes from the same place as my view on drugs, sex, food, and any other personal decisions dealing with our own bodies. We all have our own moral codes we follow, but we shouldn't force those moral codes upon anyone else.
Comments welcome.
posted by lonely libertarian at 1:31 PM
1 Comments:
Just a few follow ups- I think you’re absolutely right about your second post- what sort of society do we live in where girls get so scared upon becoming pregnant that they put their lives at risk.
Remember that some people would take your example as a reason why teenagers should be able to get abortions without parental consent. On a related side note, the lonely libertarian's father made the point the other day that society is now reaching the point where it will be okay for a 15 year old to get an abortion without her parent's knowledge, but that same 15 year old can't buy a soda or a cupcake at school. I don't mean to bring up that same debate, only to illustrate that absurdity.
Other comments- you're absolutely right about abortion time frames- they don't work, and they're not logical or moral. And, I'd take issue with your first point- Sex is a private, and our abortion laws (or any laws) shouldn't be based on one certain view about sex (such as sex is for procreation.)
And finally, there is a double standard involving the rights of the man, albeit a different one than you mention. Let's assume the woman has the right to decide whether or not she's going to carry a child- why don't both parents have the right to decide whether or not they want to support a child? If a woman doesn't want to support a child, she'll never have to. But if a man doesn't want to support a child that a woman decides to have, just try to get out of paying child support.
Post a Comment
<< Home