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MySweetSubmssive -> RE: Abortion (10/8/2007 8:43:43 PM)
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I'd like to take this conversation in a different direction if people are amenable. One of the things I am most interested in in this discussion is to understand someone who has a very different point of view that I do. I find that people on each side tend to take polarized stances to ... to buttress themself against the opposing opinions(?). So that no doubts can arise about the rightness of our own opinion? And when we do this, the ambiguity and the gray area gets erased, and something is lost. I'm not interested in changing the viewpoint of someone who holds the other opinion -- that is not my purpose here. Some of our language in this conversation has made people more intrenched in their positions rather than increasing understanding. I am intereted in putting down the intellectual weapons to attempt to know the other person's viewpoint better, with curiosity and compassion.
For example, I believe that abortions should be availble to women, and that it should be her choice in any term of pregnancy. This is my stance because I fear that if we put a limit on some abortions that the political right will use this as a wedge to then roll back the choice to have other, earlier abortions. I do think that there is an aliveness to a fertilized egg. I know that there's a heart beating at 6 weeks, and there is a recognizable body. My questions for myself is "When does this become a human, a person?" That has something to do with viability (21-24 weeks), but it also has to do with a more perplexing question, "When does the soul enter into the body?" And this is a hard one to get at. So it's all life for me, just somewhere along the line the quality of it (I won't say the value) changes.
Earlier today I was talking to friend who really hates abortion. He says that pro-choice people can come across as very cold-hearted. This seemed ironic to me as usually left-wing people are pejoratively referred to as "bleeding hearts." It's a liability! And in this instance, we are cold.
Alan told me that he makes decisions on this issue with his heart. I thought, "My god, you think I don't!?!" With abortion, and the value of life, quality of life is important. This issue gets brushed aside as "convenience," but having an abortion because you are looking at the quality of life that you can offer a child seems very heart-driven. It's very sane. And it's very ... bare-bones unromantic. I see a newly conceived person/fetus/being as a potential. I don't see it as the same as a person. And sometimes you feel it is necessary to say no to that. Is it a loss? For me, yes. However, I don't think we only have one shot at life. I think that we have experiences to learn from them. Call it karma, if you will. And so, in very simplified terms, I see an abortion not as murder, but as a delayed choice.
I hope this has not seemed like utter blather. I just wanted to offer my point of view in a less guarded way. I'd love to hear similarly from people who identify as pro-life about why they think and feel the way they do, and where they feel conflicted or ambigous about their stance.
Thank you,
MSS
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