Here are
some thought-provoking questions on abortion. I consider myself pro-life, and
I will be up-front in stating that these questions are aimed mainly at those
who believe that abortion is not morally wrong. I am not attempting here to
"ram my religious beliefs" down any metaphorical throats, but promote
a calm discussion of an admittedly controversial, but debate-worthy topic. I'd
like to perhaps find some areas where we may agree, and perhaps clarify they
"why"s of our positions.
1. When do you believe that life begins, and why? Is "personhood"
different from "life," and if so, what's the difference and when
does "personhood" begin?
2. Do you think there should be a gestational deadline for obtaining an
abortion?
3. If a woman's right to control her own body should include the right to
abortion, why should it not include the right to drugs or prostitution? Should
women be allowed to determine for themselves whether these things are harmful
to them?
4. We are now seeing the unborn being treated for disease, given blood
transfusions and even operated on. When a doctor does one of these procedures,
who is the patient?
5. Does it bother you that abortion is legal after the point where medical
science has evidence that the unborn child feels pain?
6. What rights do you feel a father should have in an abortion decision?
7. Should abortion clinics be required by law to adhere to medical standards
as legitimate out-patient surgery clinics (they currently are not)? Why or why
not?
8. Is abortion morally equivalent to not getting pregnant in the first place?
9. Let's look at a hypothetical situation: two women become pregnant on the
same day; six and a half months later woman A has a premature, yet healthy,
baby; woman B is still pregnant; a week later each decides she doesn't want
her baby. Why should woman B be allowed to kill hers and not woman A?
10. For people on both sides of the issue, what are the ramifications if you
are wrong?
In the U.S. today abortion is legal right up to the moment of birth, in other
words for all nine months of pregnancy; for any reason whatsoever, for no
reason whatsoever; in most states for a minor girl of any age, without
parental consent, without even parental knowledge. Do you agree with this in
its entirety? If not, which parts would you change?
I just thought
I'd share an idea I encountered in a novel I was reading recently by Neal
Stephenson. To paraphrase, hypocrisy is the only moral sin in a relativistic
world.
Basically what it boils down to is that if one adheres to a belief in moral
relativism, then the only moral wrong one can accuse another of is saying one
thing and doing another. Everything else is relative: I cannot accuse you of
doing something wrong, because to you, it may not be wrong; I can only accuse
you of wrong when you say yourself it is wrong, then do it anyway. What this
means for the moral absolutists is that we are often the biggest hypocrites:
Since we often hold ourselves to strict standards, our failures and
weaknesses translate to hypocrisy rather than sin in the eyes of the
relativist.
Novelist Jim Munroe put it this way: "Nowadays, consistency seems to have
replaced virtue. Since moral relativism makes virtue so hard to define, people
tend to judge people on more obvious things. If someone kills children because
he hates them, and is wholly dedicated to eliminating the toddler set from the
earth, this person is somehow less contemptible than a vegetarian who wears
leather shoes."
There are two
different kinds of stem cells: adult stem cells, harvested from bone marrow, a
placenta, or umbilical cord, and embryonic stem cells, harvested from unborn
children.
The first kind, adult-harvested stem cells, has been shown to have
not just amazing potential, but amazing RESULTS. It also has no moral
implications, since the harvesting methods are completely voluntary and
non-destructive.
The second kind, embryonic stem cells, is believed to have great
potential, but has so far been a tremendous FAILURE in all research thus far.
It also has severe moral implications, since the harvesting methods are
destructive of human life. No unborn child could survive the
cell-harvesting process. Indeed, as far as I know, no attempt has even been
made to preserve life by retrieving stem cells from living embryos in a
non-destructive manner.
Why the
controversy, then? It seems manifestly clear that adult stem cells are
the way to go, and that embryonic stem cell research should be abandoned.
In the United
States there are approximately 1,370,000 abortions performed every year.
Worldwide, there are 46 million - that's about 1.5 every second. In the
United States, abortion is legal during all nine months of pregnancy for any
reason. Pregnancies resulting from rape are extremely rare: only .06%
of all pregnancies. Abortion of pregnancies resulting from incest: 1%,
pregnancies which involve deformity of the child: 2-4%, pregnancies that
endanger the life of the mother: 0.06-1%. The total of all hard cases combined
account for only at most 5% of all abortions. The other 95% are all entirely
elective. If you do not agree with abortion for birth control, if you only
believe in an allowance for the hard cases described above, then you are
95% pro-life.
Sources:
1.
Reporting on the numbers of abortions is from the Alan
Guttmacher Institute, the research arm
of Planned Parenthood.
2. Dr. Stephen Krason writes: "A number of studies have shown that
pregnancy resulting from rape is very uncommon. One, looking at 2190 victims,
reported pregnancy in only 0.6 percent." (Abortion: Politics, Morality,
and the Constitution [Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984], p. 283.)
3. Other source for hard case percentages: John Ankerberg and John Weldon,
When Does Life Begin? And 39 Other Tough Questions About Abortion (Brentwood,
TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, 1989), 144.
As for abortion being legal in all nine months for any reason, well, that's
just the law. Look it up.
Here are more
numbers from About.com
Abortion Statistics - World
In 54 countries (61% of the world population) abortions are legal
In 97 countries (39% of the world population) abortions are illegal
There are approximately 46 million abortions conducted each year
There are approximately 126,000 abortions conducted each day
Abortion Statistics - U.S.
1,370,000 abortions occur annually in the U.S. More from your Guide below
according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
88% of abortions occur during the first 6 to 12 weeks of pregnancy
47% of abortions are performed on women who have already had one or more
abortions
43% of women will have had at least one abortion by the time they are 45 years
old
Abortion Statistics - Demographics
Age - The majority of women getting an abortion are young. 55% are less than
26 years old and 21% are teenagers. The abortion rate is highest for those
women aged 18 to 19 (56 per 1,000 in 1992.)
Marriage - 51% of women who are unmarried when they become pregnant will
receive an abortion. Unmarried women are 6 times more likely than married
women to have an abortion.
Race - 63% of abortion patients are white, however, the abortion rate for
non-white women is more than double that of white women.
Abortion Statistics - Decision to Have an Abortion (U.S.)
25.5% of women deciding to have an abortion want to postpone childbearing
21.3% of women cannot afford a baby
14.1% of women have a relationship issue or their partner does not want a
child
12.2% of women are too young (their parents or others object to the pregnancy)
10.8% of women feel a child will disrupt their education or career
7.9% of women want no (more) children
3.3% of women have an abortion due to a risk to fetal health
2.8% of women have an abortion due to a risk to maternal health
Abortion Statistics - Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice
According to a USA Today, CNN Gallup Poll in May, 1999 - 16% of Americans
believe abortion should be legal for any reason at any time during pregnancy
and 55% of American believe abortion should be legal only to save the life of
the mother or in cases of rape or incest.
According to a Gallup Poll in January, 2001 - People who considered themselves
to be pro-life rose from 33% to 43% in the past 5 years, and people who
considered themselves to be pro-choice declined from 56% to 48%.
Approximate number of abortions in the U.S. per year (based on
assumptions by the Alan Guttmacher Institute).
Let's look at the
famous Lincoln - Douglas debates. Douglas said that each state should decide
for itself whether it wanted slavery. Douglas denied that he was pro-slavery.
In fact, he professed to be "personally opposed" to it. All the
same, Douglas was reluctant to impose his moral views on the new territories.
He invoked the great principal of freedom of choice.
Lincoln disagreed. Lincoln argued that choice cannot be exercised without
reference to the content of the choice. Lincoln was saying that the legitimacy
of freedom as a political principle is itself dependent on the doctrine of
natural rights that arises out of an understanding of human nature and human
dignity.
The
potential illogic of the "personally opposed" position boils down to why
you are personally opposed. Does one think slavery is wrong
because owning slaves, whom one considers non-persons, is distasteful
and lazy, or because it violates the rights and human dignity of the slave?
If the former, at least one can understand the logic, even if the basis of
one's personal opposition is abhorrent. In the latter case, however,
one's "personal opposition" is revealed as either a childish attempt to
avoid personal responsibility, or a shameless attempt to appeal to
constituents on both sides of the issue.
Getting back to the present, since I think most
of us can agree that a general consensus has been reached on the slavery
question, it seems to me that those who support the option to perpetrate a
violation of the rights of another human being while personally opposing
said violation themselves, make no more sense, logically, than Douglas.
This has profound implications for the abortion debate in this country,
where politicians often profess a believe that life begins at
conception, but say they nonetheless support the freedom of women to choose
whether to end that life. As my Grandma used to say, and please pardon
the language, "shit or get off the pot." Either agree that
life begins at conception and defend that life, or stop calling yourself
"opposed."
I'm not the most eloquent speaker, nor the most persuasive and articulate
writer, but the plight of the unborn calls so powerfully to my heart that I
thought I'd attempt a few paragraphs on the subject of my own
thoughts on the topic of abortion. I've been less active in online
discussions of abortion since I became a mother, that is, since I became
pregnant with my first child. It pains my heart to read posts laced with the
same careless attitude of "women's rights" and "mother's
choice" and "nobody's business" that pervade the popular
media today. I cannot even dwell on the actual procedure without feeling
physically ill. I look at the innocent smiles and curious glances of my
beautiful daughter and cannot imagine allowing anyone to harm her, much less
paying someone to do so, and I cry for the thousands of women who are duped
into hiring hit men to kill their own children in the womb.
How can any parent be pro-abortion? How can you look at your child and even
consider throwing away that wonderful life? So many women are deceived into
believing that abortion is the only answer. They are indoctrinated by the
media, by their friends, by celebrities and pop culture. They are taught
that paying someone to kill your baby is being responsible. It really
saddens me that my daughter will grow up in a world where holy innocents are
slaughtered for convenience-sake, and where women take birth control pills
in ignorance of the fatal effects on the fertilized egg that can result from
their casual sex, never even knowing they were a mother for a short time.
This issue for me was always a matter of right and wrong, of defending the
defenseless, of fighting an evil so pervasive that it is considered
"intolerant" to stand against it. Now, however, after carrying a
child in my own womb for nine months, after feeling her kick inside of me,
seeing her move on the ultrasound, and finally introducing her to her first
breath and holding her in my arms, now my heart and soul cry out for these
lost children. More than the academic issue, more than the moral
significance, more than the spiritual battle, my very self bleeds in pain at
the thought of abortion.
Please forgive my emotionalism. In discussing abortion, I usually try
to be logical and factual, appealing to reason, pleading for intelligent and
sensible response, but I leave that now to those who are better at it than I
am. I'm no great writer. I wish often for the gift of persuasive discourse,
but to me it is left to beg, to pray, to ask you all from the bottom of my
heart - do not lead women to commit their children to the knife, do not
ignore them, do not turn away from their problems, their pain, and leave
them to the ugliest alternative just because it's "none of your
business." Do not walk by the abortion clinics with indifference,
looking with distaste, but leaving it to the doctors to rip young fragile
lives from their mother's very wombs.
Pray, fast, offer every suffering for the salvation of souls, for abortion
is driving them wholesale into Hell.
