Reply To: Roe v Wade

[Siderite]

If God’s heart breaks on abortion, it could get its arse into gear about miscarriages.

What’s often not said, is that abortion rates were actually higher pre-Roe v Wade. While much of the decline could be attributed to greater birth control, it does mean that illegality is not a restriction to abortion. The difference being the unsafe nature of it. Women get raped, pregnancy is a risk where the mother’s life may be in danger. People can sit and judge and say they may not make the bulk of cases, but the fact is women’s lives are either put at risk or through misery for grand moralising from the religious.

Moreover, as has been said, it’s the woman’s body and they are the ones who have to live with the consequences. The men can scuttle off and moralise about the woman, as they so often do. I wonder how many men would be willing to have forced vasectomies (a reversible process), until willing to try for a family, to prevent unwanted births. I am willing to bet many would then complain about their freedom.

Contraception doesn’t always work, pregnancy affects them for their entire life, putting their own careers and lives in a different way. At a stage where the zygote/embryo/foetus is of decreased sapience I am struggling to justify why it should be placed equal or above to the woman. We can disagree with the motives for some for abortion, but frankly, it’s the lesser of all evils, given the alternatives. The consequences of such we saw before, as anyone who is familiar with works like Motherhood with Bondage could attest.

JI complains about Roe v Wade being an imposition of a particular worldview on others, but wants to impose his worldview on women going for this, based off Christian beliefs. People have a right to be pro-life, but they shouldn’t have the right to impose their beliefs on others. Restrictions on people’s freedoms can be justified, where deemed necessary or moral. It’s people’s beliefs which drive the objection to abortion. I don’t think we should restrict people’s rights over their own bodies based on beliefs. It should be evidence driven. If Christians, or whoever, don’t like it, then tough. People shouldn’t be forced to be controlled by dogma, no matter its stripe. Christian, Islamic, communist or fascist.