john9blue wrote:Living organisms will die. Dead organisms will not live. Unborn fetuses will live. Unborn fetuses are therefore alive. Killing them is therefore killing a living human. That is murder. Murder is wrong. Therefore, abortion is wrong.
pretty simple imo
No. What's "simple" is that 1 in 3 pregnancies wind up in a natural miscarriage within the first 3 months. A number of others have extremely serious problems so that they won't survive, or will only survive with the assistance of extremely advanced medical care. Medical care, I add that the right wing is curtailing heavily because its "too expensive" or requiring people to buy insurance is somehow "oppressive". This does not even include those situations where the woman's life or health, particularly the future ability to bear children, is at risk.
Beyond that, most of you who talk about abortion have no idea that a good many of those number represent miscarriages that are surgically removed. Because there is no legal definition of life prior to 3 months, no records are kept as to whether the child is alive or dead when removed. The totals represent the procedure ONLY. Many of us have to have surgary because we have conditions such as a negative Rh blood type or other situations that make it risky to have a "natural' miscarriage. Beyond that... I won't get graphic, but just think a minute about what a "natural" miscarriage really means....and where those precious remains wind up. Many women would much rather just have surgary and get it over.
BUT, and this is the real key. The real debate is not over whether abortion is "good" or bad". Despite what the right wing tries to imply, NO ONE but a few idiotic extremists "like" abortion or think it is truly a good thing. Nor are we naive about what it truly means.
It is sometimes a necessary thing (to save the woman's life or general health -- particularly the ability to have future children) and sometimes a better choice of terrible options (a pregnant woman who is raped, a child with extremely serious medical issues, etc.).
The REAL argument, debate is over the best way to limit abortions. History gives us the best argument for that. The FACTS are that women died over and over in the past because they did not have acces to safe abortions. We see that trend resurging, as exemplified by the Philidelphia clinic.. a truly absolutely stomache-turning operation, beyond even the tragedy of a medically clean operation. As my grandmother, a nurse at that time told me, the nurses back then were in favor of legal abortion because at least then 1 of he 2 lives could be saved. And, yes, women can go on to have other children.
I do NOT agree with "abortion on demand", but my morals are not those of everyone. It was not so long ago that midwives were trained to have a bucket of water. It was not just for washing up. If a "monster" (words of the time, NOT my opinion!) was born, the goal was the child would never cry. In days of limited medical ability, it was considered far more kind than allowing a child who could not support him or herself, who would likely be doomed and perhaps doom the family to poverty, distrust, etc. Thankfully we are past those days. Yet, the truth is we still have to ask those same questions. Claiming that we have the finacial, physical ability to care for each and every child that comes out of the womb breathing or barely breathing is a false notion.
Go to a neonatal unit. Watch what happens to babies born to crack, other problems. If you watch the pain they go through, even the most sympathetic of person at some point asks if this child truly is better off not being born. Or, worse, set aside even those cases, what of the child doomed to go home not to love, but to neglect or worse. The REAL truth is that a quick death is not the worst thing that can happen to a child.
NO ONE wants abortion to be common. I wish it were only used in the most extreme cases .. to save a mother's life, perhaps (? not sure about this) rape and in some of the most severe medical cases AFTER consultation with clergy and doctors. And for myself.. only a miscarried child or a child with no chance at all of survival (yes, this happens, there are medical cases where a child can survive within the womb, but not after even with all the most modern medicine).
The QUESTION is how best to limit. Here the right wing is hypocritic beyond belief. The way to limit abortion is to educate young girls and boys about the facts of life. To inform them honestly about the risks not just of pregnancy, but disease. AND, yes, because not everyone lives in a household where premarital sex is considered wrong or entirely wrong, they do need to learn some protection methods, along with the honest truth about effectiveness. This includes telling even kids in houses without "traditional" values that getting pregnant as a teen is not a good idea, medically, socialy, etc. A GOOD program reduces teen pregnancies and unwanted pregnancies in general. The FACTS do bear that out. If you don't wish to believe history, just look at Texas.