The central idea of this text is to argue both sides whether pro life or pro choice. This is meant to get both sides to see the other picture and maybe persuade someone whos pro life to pro choice or vice versa. They mention rape or incest and how that may affect the child for the rest of it’s life because they will have a doubled chance of developing down syndrome which they say means that they will need countless surgery and constant care for the rest of their life, but this can be argued by those who have down syndrome. They argue against this accusation knowing that they have down syndrome and have experienced things first hand and know that they will have limitations but it won’t stop they from living a good life which is something they believe everyone should be allowed to live.
UK abortion. 2018. “Why Is Abortion so Controversial? | EFC.” Why Is Abortion so Controversial. Uk Abortion Support Services. July 5, 2018./.
So far my thoughts about abortion is that no matter the argument that abortion will always be wrong. I believe this because abortion is now being normalized alot and also recommended more too. Aside from the common arguing question saying what if a girl was raped gets pregnant? I will say that that’s an entirely different scenario and unless your in that position then the question isnt of relevance. However abortion is something that I believe everyone should really be educated about being that abortion not only effects women but men as well because supporting a women’s rights for abortion will give man no say in whether their unborn child’s life is terminated. Abortion is murder no matter whether people wanna argue “it’s just a lump of cells” because if allowed this baby will grow and become a walking, breathing, living child. Also women’s rights are being strongly advocated now but what about the child’s rights because the mother’s rights are being advocated for but what about the child’s? So in that argument for women’s rights are they saying that this child’s rights don’t matter?. It’s crazy to think the woman who is growing the child within her is the same person begging to end the child’s life. A question I have is that others argue you should have the right to choose whether to abort or not but by choosing to abort are you determining that unborn child as unworthy of life?
I love this post Danielle and thank you for sharing this article. I too agree with you, and I do not take this viewpoint easily. I appreciate what you said about this and finding the common ground.
First of all, everyone has good intentions with this issue. Both sides want what’s best for the pregnant mother. The resulting disagreement is over how we best help the pregnant mother.
Everyone has their pre-supposed truths and convictions about this issue. I am a faithful Roman Catholic and will not shy away or try to hide what I take to heart and know and hold to be true. A large portion of my following comment is inspired and taken from Catholic author and apologist Abigail Favale in her book Into The Deep.
This is more a critique of the entire worldview and perspective that our culture has when it comes to human biology, sex, contraceptives, and abortion.
Since the 1960s, our culture has embraced a more sexually liberated worldview where our sexual impulses should be indulged in, promoted, and shared. A worldview in which one shouldn’t feel shame for their sexual behavior. This attitude has enabled our culture to become tremendously freer in sexually expressing ourselves than previous generations. We can socially engage in intercourse much more easily and without as much backlash or consequence. Sex has become more recreational and more casual.
As a result of this newfound meaning, sex as recreation, sex is less a means of reproduction but rather a means of pleasure. All as a result of the sexual revolution:
“In fact, our ‘sexual revolution’ is mostly an industrial phenomenon, in which the body is used as an idea of pleasure or pleasure machine with the aim of ‘freeing’ natural pleasure from natural consequence. Like any other industrial enterprise, industrial sexuality seeks to conquer nature by exploiting it and ignoring the consequences, by denying any connection between nature and spirit or body and soul, and by evading social responsibility. The spiritual, physical, and economic costs of this ‘freedom’ are immense, and are characteristically belittled or ignored. The diseases of sexual irresponsibility are regarded as a technological problem and an affront to liberty. Industrial sex, characteristically, establishes its freeness and goodness by an industrial accounting, dutifully toting up numbers of ‘sexual partners,’ orgasms, and so on, with the inevitable industrial implication that the body is somehow a limit on the idea of sex, which will be a great deal more abundant as soon as it can be done by robots.”
-Wendell Berry, What are People for?
We are trying to escape the confines of human biology. We are trying to restrict and restrain human biology through contraceptives and abortion.
I hope this clarified or presented a perspective that most of you haven’t considered before. An article I read and studied last Summer was the 1971 A Defense of Abortion article by Judith Jarvis Thomas, which I encourage anyone to read. It enlightened and stumped me. I was in an environment surrounded by like-minded youth and guided by two young, bright philosophy teachers. We analytically studied as richly and deeply as we could for the time we had. It’s a good article and a very challenging one, but ultimately there is one obligation that is ignored and disagreed upon on both sides- the parental obligation to a child.
A couple of quotes from Into the Deep:
“The myth of complete sexual freedom, complete autonomy, is based on male biology, and women can only pursue that ideal by doing violence to themselves.” Men can have as much sex as they want without any physical repercussions. Women can’t. Because of this, women’s reproductive systems have to be artificially re-wired to keep up with men’s systems.
[Effect of sex without considering reproduction] “This creates a fascinating irony: a contraceptive mentality can lead to riskier sexual behavior and incorrect use of birth control, and more unexpected pregnancies because the possibility of pregnancy seems far removed. There’s sound research to support the existence of this irony: when a society first becomes contraceptive, unplanned pregnancies and abortions actually increase.”
Danielle,
What you reference a lot in your post, often links back to the 14th Amendment, in which there are many controversies surrounding the right to life. Not only has this issue caused trouble in our nation, but also the issue of federalism, where powers are divided by the state and the federal governments. The biggest issue our country faces today is politicizing healthcare, instead of examining the morals and ethics of procedures done to the patient. If a woman is not physically or emotionally ready to have a child, she should not be forced to changed the course of her life, as she has the right to life as she is born and present on earth, whereas a fetus is not born nor breathing. Additionally, a fetus is essentially a clump of cells. The fetus can not function in the ways you describe until 28 weeks of pregnancy at minimum, making it a clump of non-life functioning cells. Thus, I believe there should be abortions legalized and available to women throughout the nation. Despite being overturned by the Supreme Court in which the jurisdiction on abortions were granted to the states, women are not able to be punished by their state governments according to the Extradition Clause. This clause grants citizens the right to be treated under the laws of the states in which they travel to including travel for medical procedures. Thus, if a woman in Texas wants an abortion where it is illegal, she can travel to California to recieve this procedure and can not be punished under Texas law. The only applicable law would be the law in which she received the abortion, in which California law grants her the right to an abortion. Thus, this gives women the freedom to freely travel in order to receive a medical abortion in other states other than the state in which they reside. While you mention down syndrome as a possible effect of rape and incest pregnancies, I feel as if you fail to mention the effects on the child if a women is denied an abortion and is forced to raise a child. Oftentimes, the child is neglected, in extreme poverty, and not taken care of. Rather than focusing your efforts on politicizing the issue, we both should focus on the morality of abortion. If you say abortion is immoral and unethical, then people with these same beliefs need to invest more money into systems such as foster care, that care for children unwanted by their parents, or in situations deemed unsafe to the child. If people are truly pro-life they need to care about the child through their full childhood, rather than just their birth. However, I feel as if individuals that claim they are pro-life are simply pro-birth as institutions like foster care are not properly funded, and children are not truly cared for during the entirety of their childhood. Additionally, people that are against abortions need to do a better job in teaching pregnancy prevention through the usage of condoms and birth control. In my state, Utah, there tends to be a political majority against abortions. Yet at the same time, they refuse to teach sexual education in the classroom. I feel as if this is not a realistic expectation as teenagers have raging sexual hormones, causing them to participate in sexual acts. Rather than shunning them for such actions or deeming them “unholy”, we should teach teenagers in modern society how to participate in these sexual acts safely, to avoid unwanted pregnancies and the question of an abortion. I would be interested in reading more in regards to a followup if you included more information about prevention and care for the child after birth.
“Aside from the common arguing question saying what if a girl was raped gets pregnant? I will say that that’s an entirely different scenario and unless your in that position then the question isnt of relevance”
I can what you’re saying but laws are being proposed that would completely ban abortion. So even if someone was raped and got pregnant they wouldn’t even have the option, which is something I think you wouldn’t want. Also the people passing these laws usually are not women in these situations. I think that it should be the mothers choice as long as they aren’t 7 months pregnant or more.
This is a very interesting viewpoint Danielle. I agree with you on the fact that abortion in all cases is a horrible thing, I doubt anybody on either side of the debate simply wants to kill children. However, if we are looking at the argument of choice and abortion from a broader lens it should be understood that regardless of government accommodations or legalization abortions will continue to happen. According to the National Library of Medicine, “Evidence indicates that there is growing demand for self-managed abortion in the USA as obstacles to facility-based care increase,” Knowing this, for the utilitarian interest of all people I think there should be access to abortion clinics for mothers in the United States. Having to perform a life threatening medical operation in unsafe conditions should not be an option in the United States. I want to make it clear that I don’t think anyone should abort, I think children should be given the right to grow up and experience life regardless of their circumstances, but I don’t think people should be turned down sometimes necessary medical operations and be forced to perform these operations themselves or travel over borders to do have the operation done elsewhere. Self managed abortions can lead to severe injury or even death if done incorrectly or by an untrained professional. I understand your argument and I admire your viewpoint on children’s rights but I think there are other factors that need to be considered in this argument.
I can see your argument and you presented your evidence very clearly and concisely. I disagree that abortion should be illegal but I can understand your point of view. Abortion should definitely be illegal after 7 months because at that point it is a fully grown fetus. (https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/pregnancy-week-by-week/in-depth/fetal-development/art-20045997#:~:text=Thirty%2Done%20weeks%20into%20your,his%20or%20her%20major%20development.) Before this point though many pro-life doctors and specialists have misidentified a human fetus for a dolphin fetus which shows even the best of the best can’t tell that the fetus inside the mother is human.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u-U_dcPI) As for your argument about the choice affecting the father as well, I can understand that but ultimately since the woman is carrying the fetus it is completely her choice to get an abortion. What about if the couple had safe sex and Plan B failed or the protection they used broke? Should they be punished for doing everything right and still conceiving a baby? How is that fair to them? I would like to know your feelings on these thoughts and thank you for your opinion laid out in a fair, clear, and level-headed way. Thanks, Cole