tslr: On abortion
theotherryan on Total Survivalist Libertarian Rantfest posted a thougtful piece on abortion.
I posted a comment – that irishdutchuncle took exception to.
My response to irishdutchuncle somewhat widens the topic, so I post my reply here.
The problem is not abortion. The problem is unwanted pregnancy. And abortion is one way to address the problem. Not a good way, but mostly effective for an individual. Whether abortion, adoption, or other answer is best or just better for society, for the faithful, and legally – that is unclear.
There are two kinds of arguments here, spiritual and secular.
Spiritually, your “Before I formed you in the womb” reference seems, to me, to refer either to an eternal soul – present since the first life – or reincarnation. I see nothing that refers to the moment or concept of conception of life in that reference, or any other in the Bible. “Adam went in unto Eve and she conceived” might have – maybe – referred to fertilizing an egg. It might also have referred to marriage, or exerting male dominance over the female (recall that the Judeo-Christian church is aggressively patriarchal in substance, and vigorously opposed competing religions – including matriarchal faiths).
Maybe the passages you cite mean what you think they do. Those passages don’t convince me.
Socially and legally, since the US is not a theocracy yet, the economic impact of an unwanted birth weighs just as heavily on society as an abortion does on a woman carrying an unwanted pregnancy.
I contend that if the legal system, the government, and *the people of the US* cared about unwanted pregnancies, then you would still see laws against bigamy, adultery, and fornication enforced as vigorously as laws against child molestation. Instead we pick and choose, we decide that cheating on a marriage, “living in sin” – how long since I heard that phrase? – are considered personal choices, and have nothing to do with solemn vows, legally established unions, and laws on the books that have been removed in the last 50 years – or are just ignored.
What is beside the point is worrying about the morality of abortion – and closing school programs for unwed mothers below eighth (8th) grade, because there isn’t enough room in the program – without someone going to jail for molestation or statutory rape for each and every one of those too-young, sexually active mothers-to-be.
The problem of unwanted pregnancies isn’t being fixed. For many people, that are only involved in the intellectual concept of an unwanted pregnancy, whether or not to condone or abhor abortion – or deny it to others – is an interesting exercise in faith or morality. In the legal and secular worlds, though, for those living with the consequences, and the society that pays and deals with the aftermath of an unwanted birth, the questions don’t have such easy answers.
Too bad we don’t have a government mandated health care system that would pay for all boys to get vasectomies at age 13 – and reverse them when they were 30.
It also might be nice if in order to have a child, you had to prove emotional, intellectual, physical and financial stability, ability and capability to have and take care of, educate and otherwise raise that child for 18 years BEFORE you could get your spouse pregnant.
Unwanted pregnancies are sad for everyone involved, and the result of carelessness and lack of knowledge and forethought.
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