jpwright
New member
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2005
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- Location
- New York
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Slightly Liberal
I thought it would be a good idea for those who take a strong stance on either side to briefly explain what their thoughts are on the issue of abortion, their reasoning behind their thoughts, and why they feel this way morally. If anything, this should not be another name-calling debate, this is for debating the pure facts and statistics only... So, I'll start.
I'm prochoice, and for several reasons. For me, the issue of abortion comes down to the question of "Why not?" rather than "Why do it?". After all, a woman has a right to decide whether or not to have a baby, and to take away that right after conception but many months before birth seems rather unreasonable. So as long as I see that the attacks against abortion are untrue, then I will maintain my position on the issue. That being said, there are a few significant problems with the pro-life stance.
First, there's no scientific backing. Many anti-abortionists will speak as if each fetus is capable of deciding whether or not it wants to live, and is crying out in vain to its mother before she aborts the fetus. In reality, human sex cells are really much like simple body cells during the early stages of pregnancy. At that point, you might as well go around arresting people for using condoms since those sperm are each potential babies that have now been illegally murdered. Shock and awe. The question often racks my brain - when will anti-abortionists get it through their heads that fetuses are just cells? They're not babies. A fetus becomes a baby at birth. If I had a dollar for every time someone like this purposely called a 'fetus' a 'baby', I'd be rich. Life begins at birth. Life begins with the baby's first breath. Not when sperm meets egg - that's a scientific process.
Second, there's no moral backing. There is a BIG difference between a mother killing a 7 year old son because he wouldn't clean his room or was late to baseball practice and a mother aborting a fetus that has been in development for only a few weeks. Abortion wouldn't be so easy if it was 'baby-killing'. In many cases, first-time mothers find that their first pregnancy fails, due to either failure of the sperm to penetrate the egg, inability to cross through into the uterus, or failure for the zygote to successfully land in the uterus lining. Why don't anti-abortionists write news articles about the sad death of Mr. and Mrs. Doe's poor child who was killed in the inner linings of the uterus? An abortion is pretty much the same thing. It's not baby-killing, and it's not a crime.
Third, there's no social backing. I highly doubt anyone who goes through the horrible process of pregnancy through rape would enjoy having to be forced to continue with the pregnancy. I know, there are stories of mothers who were raped and kept the child and are quite happy, but that's still no reason to force everyone to live like that. The child might not be happy, the mother might not be happy, and overall pregnancies through rape can lead to dysfunctional families - let's face it, rapists are hardly good fathers. It's a constitutional and human right, not an act of murder on the part of mothers.
Either way, I think it's dumb that we have ivory tower male politicians up there voting for us who have never and never will* go through pregnancy and never will really experience the usefulness of the process of abortion and why so many would-be mothers strive to make that choice.
* Unless you're into male pregnancy, but... that's kind of a different story...
I'm prochoice, and for several reasons. For me, the issue of abortion comes down to the question of "Why not?" rather than "Why do it?". After all, a woman has a right to decide whether or not to have a baby, and to take away that right after conception but many months before birth seems rather unreasonable. So as long as I see that the attacks against abortion are untrue, then I will maintain my position on the issue. That being said, there are a few significant problems with the pro-life stance.
First, there's no scientific backing. Many anti-abortionists will speak as if each fetus is capable of deciding whether or not it wants to live, and is crying out in vain to its mother before she aborts the fetus. In reality, human sex cells are really much like simple body cells during the early stages of pregnancy. At that point, you might as well go around arresting people for using condoms since those sperm are each potential babies that have now been illegally murdered. Shock and awe. The question often racks my brain - when will anti-abortionists get it through their heads that fetuses are just cells? They're not babies. A fetus becomes a baby at birth. If I had a dollar for every time someone like this purposely called a 'fetus' a 'baby', I'd be rich. Life begins at birth. Life begins with the baby's first breath. Not when sperm meets egg - that's a scientific process.
Second, there's no moral backing. There is a BIG difference between a mother killing a 7 year old son because he wouldn't clean his room or was late to baseball practice and a mother aborting a fetus that has been in development for only a few weeks. Abortion wouldn't be so easy if it was 'baby-killing'. In many cases, first-time mothers find that their first pregnancy fails, due to either failure of the sperm to penetrate the egg, inability to cross through into the uterus, or failure for the zygote to successfully land in the uterus lining. Why don't anti-abortionists write news articles about the sad death of Mr. and Mrs. Doe's poor child who was killed in the inner linings of the uterus? An abortion is pretty much the same thing. It's not baby-killing, and it's not a crime.
Third, there's no social backing. I highly doubt anyone who goes through the horrible process of pregnancy through rape would enjoy having to be forced to continue with the pregnancy. I know, there are stories of mothers who were raped and kept the child and are quite happy, but that's still no reason to force everyone to live like that. The child might not be happy, the mother might not be happy, and overall pregnancies through rape can lead to dysfunctional families - let's face it, rapists are hardly good fathers. It's a constitutional and human right, not an act of murder on the part of mothers.
Either way, I think it's dumb that we have ivory tower male politicians up there voting for us who have never and never will* go through pregnancy and never will really experience the usefulness of the process of abortion and why so many would-be mothers strive to make that choice.
* Unless you're into male pregnancy, but... that's kind of a different story...