14 December 2007

Abortion: A Woman's Right to Choose?

Abortion. A word that seems to irritate and cause some people to foam at the mouth as they predict nasty painful experiences for those who 'commit such heinous crimes against humanity'.

Some Pro-Lifers enjoy harrassing abortion clinic staff - sometimes shooting them dead (the irony is somehow and for some reason lost on them).

No one likes abortion. No sane person decides to use abortion as a form of contraceptive - at least not in an environment where contraceptives are cheap and readily available. Pro-lifers tend to use graphic images of foetuses in the womb, sucking thumbs, to attempt to cause maximum distress to women who have had or are considering having an abortion. If you conducted a poll on those same Pro Lifers my guess is that a high proportion hardly bat an eyelid at the numbers of people killed in Iraq each day as a result, directly and indirectly, of the Big Nations occupation/invasion of that country. Those same people would not give two figs about the number of children dying around the world as a result, again directly and indirectly, of unfair trade policies, debt demands, impossibly high loan interest rates, financial aid provided with strings attached and many other examples. Those same people may object to 'foreigners flooding into our country', who will view them as slightly above vermin and treated as such.

I'm not saying that aborting a foetus in the 8th month of pregnancy is a good thing - obviously there has to be a cut-off point when abortions should not occur. So, how do we reduce the number of late abortions? We empower women to understand their bodies, to enable them to access support and information as early as possible, to have good quality health care available to all women, to engage with the partners of women within the services provided, to teach boys and girls about parental responsibilities from an early age, to remove religious and other forms of dogma from the arena of sex education and reproduction - to name a few.

It's not reasonable to care about unborn 'children' and yet ignore the thousands of preventable deaths each day of men, women and children globally.

I don't want to live today for a 'promised' unknown life, i.e. 'when I go to heaven'. I don't want to promote fiction and fear. I want people to choose how to live their lives for themselves.

If you want an abortion - I support you. If you want to carry the pregnancy full term - I support you. It is your choice.

9 comments:

52 Faces said...

Word.

Bryan said...

You write:

"If you conducted a poll on those same Pro Lifers my guess is that a high proportion hardly bat an eyelid at the numbers of people killed in Iraq each day as a result, directly and indirectly, of the Big Nations occupation/invasion of that country. Those same people would not give two figs about the number of children dying around the world as a result, again directly and indirectly, of unfair trade policies, debt demands, impossibly high loan interest rates, financial aid provided with strings attached and many other examples. Those same people may object to 'foreigners flooding into our country', who will view them as slightly above vermin and treated as such."

Where is your evidence for this?

Pope John Paul II opposed the war in Iraq and the other things you mention above and was implacably anti-Abortion. How does he and many other Catholics fit into your scheme?

I am anti-Abortion. I do not agree with the use of shocking images to promote the anti-Abortion message. As a Catholic I think many who work against Abortion forget the fundamental reason why it is wrong - it is the killing of the innocent and this is contrary to the Law of God and the Natural Law. Instead they adopt the pro-choice agenda: arguing about the possibility of the unborn surviving outside the womb; the rights of the mother; possible psychological damage to the mother etc.. for me this is a mistake.

Those who argue that it is possible to kill innocent unborn life on any number of grounds need to be persuaded that this is contrary to God's Law.

One can see in the UK that the early arguments used by those who wanted to legalise abortion - the deaths and injury of women in illegal back-street abortion - have given way to a rights based argument which is effectively abortion on demand for the convenience of the careers or social-life of many women.

Thanks,

Bryan

Anonymous said...

"Those who argue that it is possible to kill innocent unborn life on any number of grounds need to be persuaded that this is contrary to God's Law."

Bryan,
First: clearly it IS possible to kill any form of life, your illogical wishfulness notwithstanding.

Second: I have no doubt you can enumerate a great number of things that are against your god's law, but, happily, we do not live in a theocracy, so I'll thank you to keep your god's laws off my body!

Third: your "any number of reasons" show your obvious contempt for the women who are faced with the burden of decisions about reproduction for most of their adult lives. When you (and your fellow prohibitionists) can show some respect for us, maybe we will be more interested in hearing what you have to say on this, or other issues.

Regards,
San

Michelle said...

When I was young and single I tended to be anti-abortion. Then I married and miscarried the only child I'll ever get near to knowing. That loss was heart breaking and yet, strangely enough... it has made me very pro choice. It made me realise how utterly personal pregnancy and child birth is to the woman involved. Personal and emotional in a staggering mind-blowing way. It has made me very sure that we cannot take the rights of a woman to decide about her own body away from her. To do that is to subjugate women in the worst possible way. Yes, she may make tjhe wrong choice (in her eyes later... in "their" eyes now), but it always has to be HER choice, first and foremost.

Anonymous said...

Quote: I'm not saying that aborting a foetus in the 8th month of pregnancy is a good thing - obviously there has to be a cut-off point when abortions should not occur.


Really? The law now stands as abortion is legal until birth. I am wondering why you think it is worse latter in the pregnancy?? What changes to make it worse?

Jeanie said...

Stop by my web site sometime and look for my testimony (top of web site). I had an abortion when I was 16. I pray that it touches and changes your heart.

IN Christ,
Jeanie

Anonymous said...

Killing stays killing, wheteher it is to a human being inside the womb or outside.

Anonymous said...

My uterus is atatched to me a sovereign individual and not a state controlled sack of flesh.

I have always maintained that this and this alone is why abortion IS a right of every woman, whether she wishes to use it or not.

The anti-abortion side refuses to recognize this and even if they do, they trivialize it away, demanding that women must submit to a "higher authority" (be it their imagined god or a subjective moral standard).

-Simone

should continued edit said...

Of course, the right to choose is essential and human right. However, we need to remember that it is also an ongoing controversy surrounding the moral.