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StrangerThan -> RE: Abortion (3/23/2010 3:54:19 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Elisabella
I feel the same way Angel does - that the fetus belongs to both the mother and the father, but at the same time I feel that until technology gives us reliable and affordable incubators so that the woman doesn't have to carry the child to term, she shouldn't be prevented from abortion.
That being said I feel that while abortion is legal, there should be an equivalent option for the father to abdicate all paternal rights and responsibilities, because if a woman has the right to choose whether or not she will become a mother, a father should have the same right. It bothers me how the "if you didn't want to become a parent you shouldn't have had sex" argument is supported when it comes to child support payments but not for abortion.
This is pretty close to where I fall as well. If you've been involved with a pregnancy, gone to the doctors, watched the pictures flow out across the ultra sound from week to week, there is no doubt that life begins at conception.
People will argue all day long about what that means, about whose body is whose, but the bottom line is that in choosing to abort, the choice is to end a life. All the fine, sanitary words we are taught to use around that act ignore the basic fact that no where else does simple governance of one's body give one the right to end another life. I say simple, because there are extreme circumstances that go beyond the simple choice and boil over into self preservation or cases of victimization - cases that are often used as the rule to which any abortion debate must toe the line.
Incest, rape, health of the mother are the proving ground of any debate on this topic because they are reasonable grounds for turning the conversation more from choice to necessity. Unfortunately, they are also used as standard bearers in any and every debate on it, regardless of the intent.
There are three fronts on which I think pro-lifers can make inroads into the abortion debate. One is the viability factor. If abortion foes can tie legislation to the point of viability, then they will have succeeded in essentially identifying an end to most abortions. That point, viable, has been pushed back over the decades and will continue to be pushed back. If they can successfully link legislation to it, the time will come when most abortions will no longer be legal.
The second is rights of the father. In the age of infinitely defining rights, this one has battles yet to fight, and needs only an agreeable court to find traction because the reality of choice goes far beyond the "it's my body" stance. In choosing to abort, what is destroyed is part of both. In choosing to bring to term, one half of the equation is then held to financial responsibility that lasts for years. The idiot will say, keep it in your pants, while ignoring the same issue on the other side. Both took part, not just one, but one has the control to enact what is essentially a binding legal contract on the other by whatever choice she makes.
The third is the point where life begins. I chose at the moment of conception in the poll above. It is not a choice I would have made a couple of years ago, but having been through a difficult pregnancy with my submissive and having those weekly visits with the ultrasound, there is no question left in my mind where life begins. You can watch it unfold, step by step. I've heard and even used the term parasitic in relation to what those first few weeks are, but again, the viability point comes into play. In describing it as parasitic, I am basically saying, There's a parasite there that will become human when I decide it bothers me enough to consider it human. Kind of a bullshit stance.
I've always supported the right to abortion because I became a father at 16 and know exactly how long and hard that road is, and because I don't see it as my business to decide what other people do. Either way, I chose the life at conception option above because I believe it to be an overriding truth. And that leaves me thoughtful.
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