You hear a lot of pro-choice people use the argument that the state should not get involved in abortion decisions. But ISTR only hearing this from people who either think abortions are morally OK anyway, or from people who use this to avoid taking a position on the matter altogether.
But what I’m wondering about is whether there are pro-choice people - whether public figures or posters - who think abortion is morally wrong, who would advise someone who asked them that they should not have an abortion for moral reasons, who would think someone who had an abortion had committed a moral transgression, but who nonetheless think that purely as a matter of public policy the government should not outlaw it. (I realize there’s a broad spectrum of possible actions the government could take on the matter - the question is whether there are people who are willing to say that X is morally wrong but that the government should not ban in that circumstance.)
I think most people fall into this category, at least a little bit.
This is why you hear people say they want abortions to be safe, legal and rare.
I’m not religious and am pro-choice. However, it’s not like I’m cheering when I hear there’s been another abortion. To me any abortion represents a failure. Someone should have probably been on birth control. Or the birth control failed. Or they were with the wrong person and realized it too late. Or they were raped. Or something else, all of it unfortunate.
I don’t know if I’d go quite so far as to call abortion immoral, but it’s certainly not desirable. But that doesn’t mean I want to ban it. The benefits to not having millions of unwanted kids far outweigh any queasiness I have about the morality of abortion.
This is why I don’t often participate in abortion debates.
Prolifers: Abortion is murder!
Me: So what? Even if I concede that I still think it’s a good idea to have it available because the alternative is worse.
Prochoicers: Stop helping.
In a perfect world no one would need an abortion, but that’s not reality.
It’s like soft drinks with sugar. No one should be drinking that poison. It shouldn’t even exist. But it’s not like I want to ban it. I’m not some monster like Michael Bloomberg.
OK, but that doesn’t sound like what I’m asking about.
It sounds like you’re saying that you think the world would be a better place if situations that call for abortions never arose to begin with, but that in those situations you can’t say there’s something morally wrong with having one.
I’m asking if there are people who feel that even in those situations (whatever they might be) having an abortion is the morally wrong choice, but that the government should mix out anyway.
I do not believe the government should be making my personal moral choices for me at all - whether it be with regard to abortions or sexual fidelity or the attendance (or lack thereof) at a specific church. I am a grown adult, and therefore making my personal moral choices is up to me, thank you very much.
Many, many people make choices I believe to be morally wrong (or at least questionable). This does not mean that I think the government ought to be involved in the decision-making process.
Whether or not a specific act is moral or not is a personal one, whether we’re discussing abortion or pet adoption or charitable giving or sexting with that hot guy in the office. It is the very definition of “YMMV”.
I fall into “pro life” in my family and hope that’s the choice everyone makes, but when it comes right down to it, it’s a matter of choice and I don’t see me having the right to “edict” my “pro life” choices on anyone else, then attend a pro execution rally.
Absolutely. I believe I fit your criteria pretty well. I think abortion is often an immoral choice, used for convenience or due to a lack of proper care and with little regard for the terminated life. Nonetheless, I believe it should be available and that the government has no business restricting such choice. I think there are many immoral choices people make, and some are against the law and some are not. I think the government itself is immoral in many respects, taking property rights from property owners and outright taking money and assets from people and giving to others. Taking my property and giving it to others against my will is immoral.
I think abortion is morally questionable. I also think not aborting can be morally questionable when you don’t have the means or desire to properly raise a child.
It’s certainly possible to be in a situation where there are no morally clean options, and I’m on board with the idea that abortion is often the least morally questionable option available.
On the balance, this makes me support the pro-choice side and support birth control, sex education, and other measures so we don’t get into a murky moral grey area in the first place (fortunately, unlike some people, I don’t consider birth control itself to be morally wrong).
I guess I qualify. I hate saying that I think it’s morally wrong because I don’t mean that in a judgmental way. I guess in addition to not controlling people’s bodies I also feel like I don’t have a right to judge them either.
But yes, I think abortion is morally wrong. I would not do it, nor would I advise anyone else to do it.
I believe abortion is clearly morally wrong. I believe the underlying pregnancy in the vast majority of cases is the result of simple irresponsibility. I believe that taking the pregnancy to term and giving the child up for adoption is a far more moral action. I also believe the state forcing women to complete the pregnancy would be more immoral. I believe that women should have (limited) abortion rights. The limited rights that I am okay with generally are in line with the current situation. I also believe that Roe v. Wade was decided incorrectly. I would not call myself pro-life or pro-choice. I simply support certain limited abortion rights because I consider that the lessor of two evils.
I am what I call “reluctantly pro-choice,” meaning I’m sane enough to realize that ending human life is a tragic thing. At the end of the day, I see the occasional necessity of abortion and it’s really not “why” for me but “when.” The morning-after pill is a far cry from a 6-month fetus that can nearly breathe on its own.
People, particularly women, who are “adamantly” pro-choice disgust me frankly. Owning your body is not a license to end viable human life.
Yeah. Some women talk about it like they went and got their hair done. I find that pretty disturbing. But I think most women who have gone through with the process feel the burden of it and the tragedy of it. I’m grateful I’ve never been in a position to have to make that choice.
I think abortion is often, perhaps even more often than not, a moral wrong. I think it’s horrifying how many pregnancies are ended by abortion (look it it up – if you don’t already know, I’m pretty sure you’ll be surprised)
That said, I’m not prepared to judge a woman’s particular circumstances at the time when she chooses to have an abortion. You’ll see that I didn’t say that abortion is always a moral wrong – I just don’t know, can’t know, what’s in a woman’s mind.
I’m far from sure that prohibiting abortion is the best way to go.
I’m pro-choice. I certainly experience abortion as a moral dilemma, one too complex for me to make a polarized rule about. I probably wouldn’t have had an abortion myself. However, I will be pro-choice as long as rape, inadequate sex education, and inadequate health care options exist. When those are take care of, I’d be glad to wrestle more with questions about abortion as a preference or other clearly personal form of decision-making.
Sure. Almost everyone I know well enough to have this conversation with is pro-choice and believes that abortion is at least sometimes morally wrong or morally murky.
Sure, all of us. Nobody wants to kill babies, just as nobody wants to kill chickens to have KFC. Life is full of making decisions in which there is no clear-cut moral choice, and every option has a downside.
Nobody wants to use abortion as the birth control of choice, only as the last resort when other means have failed, due to human imperfections that result in things going wrong.
Morally dubious, but I’d never begrudge anyone the choice to have one. I’m as scientifically minded as they come when it comes to biology and humanity, yet I still can’t shake that small part of me that feels a fertilized egg is human (and all that that entails).
If by immoral you mean, a person should probably feel guilty if they are having an abortion on a regular basis, then yes. I can’t justify this opinion with fact or anything. I’m not going to pretend it makes sense. And I wouldn’t dare shame a person at a clinic or use it to shape policy. But sure, I’m going to feel different about a woman who has intentionally had 10 late-term abortions over the course of her life versus a woman who had to abort 10 embryos while undergoing IVF, even though the end-result is the same.
Abortion as a practice, however, isn’t morally wrong IMHO. Abortion (and suicide) would be immoral if life wasn’t full of unfairness and WTF-level suffering. But life is full of both, so it’s fair game.
No, not all of us. I’m pro-choice and I don’t think an early abortion is a moral issue at all, let alone “kill[ing] babies.” If a woman told me that she’d had, say, ten abortions at six weeks, I’d wonder if she knew what birth control was, but in the same way that I wonder why people keep pulling on a door when it doesn’t open.
In some cases, abortion is probably morally wrong. But individuals (adults) have the right to decide what enters and remains inside their bodies, so my thoughts on its morality are irrelevant. It’s not my body, so I don’t get to choose.
It’s called “pro-choice” and not “pro-abortion” for a reason.
I knew a woman in the army who got pregnant to avoid going to Iraq. Six weeks after her unit deployed, she got an abortion. I don’t care what side of the aisle you stand on, that’s fucking cold.