Premature evacuation?
So I read an article on abortion today, or rather, a one-sided, left-wing, propoganda piece written solely for the purpose of justifying the removal of a living fetus from a woman's womb prior to birth. It was (supposedly) written by three women who'd all had partial-birth abortions for different reasons. One was because the child had a horrible deformity that would have left him invalid, the other was because the wife may have died, and I forgot the last one.
I dunno. Myself, I can't really say I'm pro life or pro choice. To quote Penn and Teller, everyone is pro life AND pro choice. It's whether you're for or against abortion that lies at the heart of the issue, so perhaps trying to typify people into groups because of their moral standing on the issue is a bit... presumptuous. I've learned that with abortion, there's typically no middle ground, which is kind of sad.
To clarify my own stance, I've always thought that abortion is very immoral, but my experiences are limited and I don't have medical knowledge to back many arguments beyond my moral objection to it. The only woman I've known to have an abortion said, word for word, that having a child while trying to go to college was an inconvenience. A comment like that saddens me greatly, because I consider that to be tragic loss of life. The girl was very sexually active, and though she took precautions, no method of birth control is absolute (save for abortion when it's abused and used as such). It's situations like that that make me feel abortion is such a terrible thing for this country to allow.
But there are other things that make me feel as if abortion is a legitimate medical procedure that can save lives. I don't know anyone who's had an abortion because complications from childbirth would have been life-threatening, but I'd believe it's happened if someone told me. As well, some birth defects are so serious that it's less painful for the family (and the child) to simply perform the procedure. Is it moral? I can't personally judge that for myself. I've never been in a situation like that.
In the end I still oppose the idea of what I view essentually as killing an unborn child. I oppose it strongly when it is used as a means to avoid the consequences of one's actions, and I think I could be more sympathetic in an instance during which a mother may have no other choice to make. People who oppose abortion probably don't consider the emotional and physical toll the procedure takes on a woman, no matter what her reasons for having it done. If it's used as an escape button, then I say it's just desserts. If it's used as a last resort, I can only hope the mother (and father) will eventually learn to cope with what they had to decide to do.
I dunno. Myself, I can't really say I'm pro life or pro choice. To quote Penn and Teller, everyone is pro life AND pro choice. It's whether you're for or against abortion that lies at the heart of the issue, so perhaps trying to typify people into groups because of their moral standing on the issue is a bit... presumptuous. I've learned that with abortion, there's typically no middle ground, which is kind of sad.
To clarify my own stance, I've always thought that abortion is very immoral, but my experiences are limited and I don't have medical knowledge to back many arguments beyond my moral objection to it. The only woman I've known to have an abortion said, word for word, that having a child while trying to go to college was an inconvenience. A comment like that saddens me greatly, because I consider that to be tragic loss of life. The girl was very sexually active, and though she took precautions, no method of birth control is absolute (save for abortion when it's abused and used as such). It's situations like that that make me feel abortion is such a terrible thing for this country to allow.
But there are other things that make me feel as if abortion is a legitimate medical procedure that can save lives. I don't know anyone who's had an abortion because complications from childbirth would have been life-threatening, but I'd believe it's happened if someone told me. As well, some birth defects are so serious that it's less painful for the family (and the child) to simply perform the procedure. Is it moral? I can't personally judge that for myself. I've never been in a situation like that.
In the end I still oppose the idea of what I view essentually as killing an unborn child. I oppose it strongly when it is used as a means to avoid the consequences of one's actions, and I think I could be more sympathetic in an instance during which a mother may have no other choice to make. People who oppose abortion probably don't consider the emotional and physical toll the procedure takes on a woman, no matter what her reasons for having it done. If it's used as an escape button, then I say it's just desserts. If it's used as a last resort, I can only hope the mother (and father) will eventually learn to cope with what they had to decide to do.