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Today’s episode is an experiment. Had some time and opinions to spare with a rose to finish. In this first guest-free episode where I will be airing some thoughts starting with the new abortion law passed in Alabama earlier this week. From that point I go to a few different places but try not to stray too far away from the central topic.
More episodes at https://www.peopledrinkwords.com/podcast/
Well, lots of wide-spread thoughts here… but for sure, it’s hard to not mention them.
As a man, here’s my opinion: the only case when abortion could be (ethically) accepted is pregnacy due to a rape, for the reasons you quoted – and that everyone can assume, I guess. All other reasons are egocentric imo.
Let me explain my pov… When you make the inventory of the possible reasons of abortion, these ones are those which are used the most :
1°) Unwanted pregnancy from people who don’t want to have kids (permanently or temporarily) or can’t assume having kids (teens / preteens, etc.)
2°) Disease dectected during prenatal examination
For the first case, it’s just about people who took risks (no contraceptives taken or contraception failure) and who don’t want to take responsibility, whereas they knew what were the implications and risks… In this context, abortion is a solution to repair their mistakes somehow, but there’s something more hiding behind this.
Nowadays, most of people are in control (psychologically talking) in the way they approach their lives. They just can’t accept things as they come, they spend a lot of energy, time and money to make everything fit their needs, and it’s a real struggle. When abortion is used this way, it’s just a kind of comfort tool, to satisfy a whim (I intentionally exaggerate). Think about it : in the XVIIth century, people didn’t have medical abortion like we have today. They just were careful and got used to it; it didn’t stop them from living at all though, they didn’t need to control pregnancy these reasons (I’m still in point #1 context).
Concerning the last case, it’s a little bit more questionable, but to me the egocentrism aspect remains in the fact that parents make the decision in the place of the concerned living being (which I won’t call “baby” at this step, but “living being” as long as its heart is beating, even though it’s not necessarily conscious of its own living state). What if the “future baby” wanted to live his life in spite of his disease ? We’ll never know as we didn’t let him figure this out by himself… It’s easier to go back once alive (by commiting suicide) than once dead (rez spell isn’t available).
Most of the time, it starts from good intentions (keep the baby from suffering once born, etc.), but sometimes people just lie to themselves and pretend to do this for the baby’s sake whereas it’s only for them and their good conscience (don’t want to go through the difficulties of raising a disabled child, etc.).
In brief, for sure women can do whatever they want with their own bodies, but as long as another life is involved, they really should have a serious reflexion about abortion before making a decision (by exploring all available point of views, questions, scenarii), it’s a huge responsibility – much more than we think. I don’t think there’s a unique good answer to this issue though.
At this point, don’t get me wrong : I’m not only targeting pro-abortion people, I’m also criticizing my self as I agree with them on some points.
In the end it’s all about choices one makes, some choices have more serious implications than others and definitely people handling abortion like a light matter hurt the debate of the pro-abortion and pro-choice side of the argument. However, this should not a reason to take away an option that was hardly fought for and that is also a matter of healthcare. Abortion has always been around, legalisation made it safer to make the right choice for a pregnant woman who might not want nor be ready for a child.