Abortion* come down to one fundamental question:
Is the fetus a person?
If a child comes up behind you and asks "Can I kill this?", your immediate response is likely going to be: "Kill what!?"
A flower? Yes, go ahead. A bug? No issue there. Your brother? Um...no.
Abortion kills something.
The question at hand, which will make it either morally right or morally wrong, is what does abortion kill?
The obvious is that abortion kills a human being. From conception, it is a human that is concieved. So the question goes one step further to...when is the fetus considered a person? When does the single cell conceived inherit the right to life?
If you do not conclude that personhood (and further, the right to life) begins at conception, then there is no other point in which to firmly pinpoint when personhood beginning.
Every subtopic of abortion comes back to this fundamental question.
The woman has a CHOICE, it's her body: I am all for a womans choice! In fact, I would argue that I am very pro-choice! I believe a woman should have a choice when choosing her healthcare provider, her husband, and her career. But when a woman wants to choose to take the life of another, especially as a matter of convinience (which accounts for 97% of abortions today) I do not believe that a woman has that choice. Convinience does not justify homocide. This brings us back to the question of: When do we consider the fetus a person?
Rape: Giving birth to the baby will be painful and wil lcause the woman to think of the rapist everytime she looks at her daughter. She should not have to carry that baby as it will cause extreme pain. Hardship doesn't jusify homicide.
Imagine a woman having a child out of rape and the child is 3 years old. The woman points to the child and says "I think of my rape every day. Every time I see her I think of him. She is a constant reminder". We would obviously not allow the woman to kill her 3 yr old daughter because of this pain. The 3 year old is a person! She has a right to life that we can not take away! We are brought back to the fundamental question: When do we consider the fetus a person?
Imagine a woman having a child out of rape and the child is 3 years old. The woman points to the child and says "I think of my rape every day. Every time I see her I think of him. She is a constant reminder". We would obviously not allow the woman to kill her 3 yr old daughter because of this pain. The 3 year old is a person! She has a right to life that we can not take away! We are brought back to the fundamental question: When do we consider the fetus a person?
Prevension of illegal abortions:
No one you ask is going to tell you that they want women to be forced into back allies for abortions because they are illegal. No one wants women dying from abortions. However, you can not make this argument.
No one you ask is going to tell you that they want women to be forced into back allies for abortions because they are illegal. No one wants women dying from abortions. However, you can not make this argument.
By making abortion illegal, the number of women's deaths due to illegal abortions will be extremely low. We may loose 100 women to this sad situation if abortion is illegal. However, by keeping abortion illegal, we are losing 1.37 million lives each year. We can not justify the death of 1.37 million lives a year to prevent a dozen deaths a year.
*I refuse to call abortion an "issue" here because that is not what it is. I refuse to compartmentalize the taking of millions of lives and label it an "issue".
