A Choice Perspective–
Seemed like a good idea to let this Post resurface. It was originally posted well over a year ago and again several months ago due to the new Texas law concerning abortions. Here we go again now that there is a draft paper that has been released by Chief Justice Roberts indicating the Supreme Court might overturn Roe vs Wade.
This perspective is not intended to nudge anybody toward being pro-life or pro-choice. At best, I hope it might make someone less of a single issue voter.
Obviously humans can make physical bodies as can all animals but some will argue that there may be a lack of humility to say that humans also create ever lasting souls that temporarily inhabit those bodies.
For those that believe the everlasting soul or spirit is not created from the human egg and seed but instead by the Divine, might they be allowed to believe that the soul is not created upon conception?
To them the termination of a pregnancy might not be terminating a soul or spirit because they do not have the power to terminate something that is everlasting or something that has yet to inhabit a fetus.
Accepting that someone has the right to believe that is what freedom of religion is about. At the turn of the 21st Century there were 28,000,000 people in the United States that claim to be non-adherents of any religious tradition. A 2015 Gallop Pole showed that half of Americans consider themselves “pro-choice” on abortion, surpassing the 44% who identify as “pro-life.” Today, 69% of America supports Roe vs Wade.
If a woman does not want to give birth to a fetus for health and financial reasons and is legally forced to give birth, who should pay for the cost of growing that child? If a fetus is a person at 6 weeks pregnant, is that when the child support starts? Is that also when you can’t deport the mother because she is carrying a US citizen? Can a 6 week fetus be insured so that a miscarry is paid for?
Would a person considering abortion be less frightened of the challenges of giving birth if the the Federal government invested in child care and preschool? Investments that created a child care entitlement for most children from birth through age five and universal pre-kindergarten for three- and four-year-olds, which provided significant increases to access for families and children, improved the quality of the programs, and increased pay and support for providers?
If the mother can’t provide a safe and nourishing environment or have the means to feed and clothe the child, should she be legally forced to put the baby up for adoption or instead try to raise the child in a homeless situation?
Most of the time people have an image in their heads about a circumstance, like the circumstance of a pregnant woman. Here is an image you might not have thought about. In 1950, the world population was about 2.5 billion. In 2000, it was about 6 billion. The United Nations estimates the world population will eventually level out at 11 billion people in 2150. Large numbers of the world’s population continue to live in severe poverty. In 1997 1.3 billion people had incomes below $1 per day. These people, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, East and Southeast Asia, on the Indian subcontinent, and in Haiti, lived very near the margin of subsistence. Some of the most extreme poverty is found on the outskirts of rapidly growing cities in developing countries. In many parts of the world, people have moved to urban areas in search of work. Often, they must live in slums, in makeshift dwellings without sanitation or running water. Is the intensity of your right-to-life position consistent regardless of the circumstance of the pregnant woman?
Most of us want to make our own choices regardless of how difficult they are. People who would be good parents would have a very difficult time deciding to abort a fetus. It would be a traumatic decision that could haunt them for life. They do not need others to add to that trauma.
The longer a woman is pregnant the less likely she is to abort. Something drastically has to change for a woman who has carried a fetus into late term for her to decide to abort the fetus. That decision is probably excruciatingly painful and personal.
Pro-Choice supports access to safe and legal abortion if for no other reason than to prevent women from seeking back ally abortions. And yes, coat hangers were used, still are, and will be again in direct relationship to the availability of safe,sanitary, and professional clinics.
Women are different than men. They can give birth. They need access to effective birth control and emergency contraception, and reproductive health services. Why would a man want to take that away from them?
Men, if you were the one that carried the fetus, would that change your opinion about life vs choice?
Are you still a single issue voter?