Abortion is a topic that is constantly debated over. And I think it's ridiculous. A woman has rights over her body, and it is inapropriate for anyone to dictate what she must do. Right now, I've become so overwhelmingly infuriated by this violating debate that I have to write about it in full. For once in my life, i want to post my opinions somewhere whether it's read or discussed or not.
First of all, men have absolutely no right arguing this issue. This is a woman's issue and should be discussed by women only - to kill or not to kill a life growing inside my body is not an easy decision and since men don't know what it's like to FEEL that being existing within, they cannot understand the weight of such a decision. Men will argue that it's their baby too so they should have a voice, but NO! They will not carry that baby for 9 months. They will not experience weight gain, hormonal changes, irreversible body changes, the emotional rollercoaster, the sacrifice of habits and lifestyle, having to watch what you eat, watch what you drink, watch what you do or don't do, GO THROUGH LABOUR... there is so much involved in creating a healthy child and bringing it into this world that men simply can't relate and can't understand and therefore can't have a say in the matter. If your wife or girl friend doesn't want to go through all that, you can't make her because it's her body and she has the right to protect it and care for it as she sees fit.
The main argument I hear is about "God's miracle" and how we should not destroy his work. Considering you need to HAVE faith to buy this one, it is insulting and absurd that the state supports this view in a multicultural society like Canada. Not everyone believes in God, not everyone shares the same view of who or what God is, and not everyone views the same things as a miracle. It is NOT religion's place to dictate state public policy when such a decision will affect believers and non-believers alike. Even within faiths some people might feel pregnancy at a particular time in life to be more a punishment than a miracle - try convincing a woman broke and living in a dilapidated bachelor apartment in the worse part of town that having another mouth to feed is a miracle. Maybe a growing foetus is a miracle, maybe it's not - nobody has the right to legally force a woman to sacrifice herself over something she may or may not agree with.
Along with this "God's miracle" stance comes "the rights of the child" attitude. But I'd like to clarify something: the organism is dependent on the host for the first 26 weeks of development. Thus, the foetus should not be considered an independent individual until it can live and breathe independently outside the mother's womb. That's why generally doctors won't perform an abortion after the 24th-25th week of pregnancy - because after that there is the possibility the baby could survive separately from the mother. Also, the rights of an individual that doesn't even have a birth date or name should not override the rights of a fully functional citizen who has already existed and contributed to society for at least 12-13 years. The child hasn't even been born yet! How can you take away a human being's right to choose for something that can't even look you in the eye yet?
Finally, the less emphasized argument used in pro-lifers' defense is that you shouldn't have sex unless you're willing to accept responsibility for the consequences. Personally I agree with this one, but it's not our place to tell people when and with whom they can have sex! If people want to have sex, that's their prerogative. If the state wants to dictate what a person does after having sex, it might as well dictate when a person can have sex! But that would be ludicrous and nobody would let that pass, so why would people let anti-abortion legislature pass? If a woman has the right to choose to have sex she also has the right to decide whether to take what comes with it or not. And many people choose not to marry but remain common-law their whole lives - the state recognizes that adults may choose to live together (and sleep together) without tying the knot. So if a couple wants to have sex but doesn't want children, who are you to tell them they can't have sex because they don't want to be parents for the rest of their lives? Should we make tube-tying and vasectomies illegal too because they are depriving us of "God's miracles"? Should contraception become illegal? Where do we draw the line to force "God's miracle" and nature to take its course? People should have sex responsibly, absolutely, but nobody should have the right to decide what a couple should do if accidents happen and unexpected reproduction takes place.
Now, pro-lifers want to promote life and dictate what a woman does with her body and the organism inside it. But have they given ANY thought to WHY a woman may abort, or what would happen to those thousands of unwanted children? Once the baby is forcedly born, what happens to it? Can ANY pro-lifer guarantee she will be a good mother? That the baby will grow up in a safe and positive environment? That the child will not suffer emotional abuse for "screwing up" mom's life or being "an accident" rather than "God's miracle"? That the child will have everything it needs to grow up healthy and taken care of? NO! Pro-lifers want to force women to have babies without considering the consequences of THAT choice! Having a baby doesn't end when she gives birth. Having a baby and giving life means taking care of that life! Women who want to cancel a pregnancy do it because they don't want to be mothers or because they know they can't be the mother they want to be at the time. Some do it for health reasons. Others do it because it's a result of rape or one night's terrible mistake. Some cancel it because they realize they'd be alone and the father would run and they can't do it alone. Some do it because they just didn't want more children than they already have! There are so many personal reasons for a woman to end a pregnancy, and pro-lifers' seem to forget the weight of the decision, assuming it's an easy one to make. There are risks to abortion and there is a lot of emotional damage that takes place - women are rarely happy to do it, but they do what they gotta do for themselves and for their unwanted child. How can pro-lifers advocate for something without considering the consequences of the decision they do support? They would be putting thousands of children in harm's way, but aparently that's okay so long as the child can live to suffer.
If pro-lifers win and women are forced to have babies, can you imagine the kind of problems society would experience? The adoption agencies would clog up even more. CAS would collapse under the weight of all the abused and neglected children, victims of unwanted pregnancies gone through. Child poverty - already at 3 million children plus in Canada - would inflate dramatically as the economy would suffer severely from all the families requiring welfare because they couldn't afford the baby but were forced to have it anyways. The labour force would suffer from all the women who must sacrifice career and education because they have to have their baby, and it would cost a lot in lost dollars for all that maternity leave and stay-at-home status because there's not enough daycare to go around. And above all it would be a terrible slap in the face to all the progress we have made in promoting the rights of women as independent and entitled to equality and equity in our system because forcing a woman to be a mother is as bad as forcing her to be a stay-at-home wife - she is being forced to do something solely because of her expected role in society.
There's a reason anti-abortion legislation hasn't passed: it is economically, socially and morally a bad idea. You can't force a woman to have a baby, just like you can't force a teenager not to have sex. You can educate and you can offer alternative solutions and precautionary measures, but you cannot force a person to do something to their body they don't want to. It's moral rape to impose a life on a person who doesn't want to or can't care for it! It's not about letting women kill their babies, it's about letting a woman choose how she wants to live her life. She has rights and she's earned them - who are you to tell her her unborn child's life is more valuable than her own?
--- posted by “footprints 165” in WonderCafe
