abortion practicalities

[chimerically]

This is in response to a friend's blog post on abortion - I just wanted to post it on my blog. :~)

When I argue for abortion, I tend to sidestep the "embryo is a human too" argument, just like I sidestep the "animals have rights too" argument of vegetarians. That's stepping into ideology, and I think it's much more effective to argue the practicalities of the matter than to convince someone to change their belief system.

First, being a parent, and even being pregnant, is profoundly life-altering - and it's almost always the mother who is saddled with the changes.

Second, abortion may be gruesome (especially when pro-life groups put up ten-foot-high pictures of aborted fetuses all over Sproul Plaza), but so are fetal alcohol syndrome and other mental and physical disabilities that are induced by drug use, recessive traits, or generally not caring enough to be healthy during pregnancy. When I saw those posters on Sproul, I wanted to counter with pictures of major birth defects that are due to the mother not caring about her unwanted pregnancy ... maybe pictures of child abuse also. There are too many unwanted children in the world.

Finally and most importantly, women have been getting or inducing abortions for centuries. They recognize how life-altering having a baby is and will avoid having one at any cost. If abortions aren't legal, women who do not want to carry a baby to term will seek illegal and often unsafe alternatives, just as they have throughout history. (It is not reasonable to simply tell people to abstain from sex - it's too much against human nature. Utah's sex ed. program sums up to "abstinence is good" - the teachers can't even give more information unless specifically asked by students - and when I was in high school, Utah had one of the highest out-of-wedlock teen pregnancy rates in the nation!)

Arguing whether abortions are "right" or "wrong" will not change the fact that women will get them - but making abortions illegal will just increase the number of women who die horrible deaths from unsafe abortions. Coat hangers or bleach in the uterus, anyone?

*deep breath*
*steps off soapbox*

I like Micheal Moore's comment about abortion: men have no place to say anything against abortion, since they'll never have to actually deal with being pregnant!

Comments

[surpheon.livejournal.com]

The problem I see with this line of argument is it is too often used to argue an abortion should be no more of an issue than a root canal, so birth control is a lot like flossing - well advised to avoid an unpleasant procedure, but who doesn't have a few fillings? In the Soviet Union abortion was the typical, if not only, convenient birth control option (oh yeah, and the "100% effective" abstinence). I like being in a society that couches abortion more as a choice between evils with some weight to it, rather than simply an almost annual birth control procedure.

IMHO, should women be able to get a safe, medical abortion without having to deal with a horde of zealots with horror-show 10' fetus pictures? Absolutely. At the same time, should society put more effort into reducing the need for abortion than it puts into fighting tooth decay? Yes. That means good sex ed, universal access to birth control technologies, combating poverty, raising women's standard of living and supporting adoption programs. Doing that fights abortion. As your argument clearly states, trying to make it illegal is actually a pretty poor approach to fighting abortion...

Anyhow, there are counterpoints of varying level of mediocrity to your arguments:
First- Being a parent certainly profoundly affects fathers - at the most callous this is being enforced more and more by DNA testing.
Second- Stephen Hawkings should have been aborted.
Third- Female circumcision has been around for centuries; cultural relativism was killed by Nazism...

Doh! I almost Godwin'd it didn't I? Close enough, you win :) But I don't think we were too far apart to start with.

[chimerically.livejournal.com]

(Not Godwin enough to stop a reply :~))

At the same time, should society put more effort into reducing the need for abortion than it puts into fighting tooth decay? Yes.

I totally agree. Women should know that even "safe" abortions can, in rare cases, render women infertile (as happened with a close family member) or do other damage. It's definitely more invasive than preventative measures.

Even the morning-after pill can induce acute nausea and vomiting for days ... and some women's bodies react violently to hormonal contraceptives, IUDs and even latex.

When are they going to develop a male birth-control pill, anyway? (I was discussing this with zestyping a while ago - despite feminist cries of unfairness, it does seem like female ovulation is the "weak link in the chain" - it's just one little egg to control, rather than millions of sperm! ...)

[surpheon.livejournal.com]

I like to think that the "silent majority" falls into the category of legal abortion, but effective action to make it very uncommon. The male birth control pill is finally on the way! Some options are under test in Seattle at my alma mater, the UW. Of course, it is a hormonal solution that sounds like it could be as fun as the women's version, so the doc's can't put away those vasectomy snippers yet!

MHC

[chimerically.livejournal.com]

Wow, awesome - it's about time! Thanks for the link! :~)