Let’s look at this issue in as many ways as possible.
Personhood at conception is a religious belief, not a provable biological fact. Mormon and some Fundamentalist churches believe in personhood at conception; Judaism holds that it begins at birth and abortion is not murder; ensoulment theories vary widely within Protestantism. The religious community will never reach consensus on the definition of a “person” or when abortion is morally justified.
So which religions’ teachings get enshrined into law, and which get ignored?
The “pro-life” concerns of abortion foes are only for fetal lives, not the lives of women or unwanted babies. “Pro-life” is a term used to make anti-abortion and anti-choice seem positive and good.
Many reject the absolutist position that it is always wrong to terminate a pregnancy and believe that abortion may be the morally right choice under certain circumstances.
Many people who are personally opposed to abortion for religious or moral reasons also believe that it is wrong to impose their values by civil law on everyone. You don’t have to like abortion to respect the right of choice.
That describes my very own position (born into and raised Catholic).
Margaret Sanger said, “No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her own body.” This concept is fundamental for women.
Abortion is a religious issue, because the basis of opposition to abortion is the theological question of when personhood begins. Organized religion, primarily the Catholic Church and the “religious right,” is the backbone of the anti-abortion movement and is a cause for great concern among pro-choice religions, who see anti-abortion laws as a violation of religious liberty.
I already touched on this.
Almost all legislators who oppose abortion rights also support the death penalty. One might ask if they think people who are convicted of murder are no longer human.
Every life is precious unless “we” say otherwise (?)
The Constitution protects various rights that are not specifically mentioned, but are derived, via Supreme Court interpretation, from other rights. Examples of this are the right of free association and the right to distribute printed material. The constitutional right of privacy has been interpreted repeatedly to include matters of marriage, family and sex, specifically “the right to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child.”
I talked on this, re the Bedroom Police already.
If “person” were defined as beginning at conception, then abortion would be the crime of murder. Women’s bodies, rights and health would be subordinated to the protection of the embryo. No abortions would be permitted for any reason, including rape or incest. Each miscarriage would have to be investigated. The legal consequences of such an amendment would be catastrophic.
This also has been aready covered. If it is a crime, then punish it.
Polls show overwhelming – and growing – support for legal abortion. Typically, a 1982 Associated Press-NBC poll showed that 77% agreed that abortion “should be left to the woman and her doctor,” and that support for abortion rights cuts across political, age, religious, income, education, race and sex differences. Only 19% favored a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion.
Now where were we? Oh yes. Most people think that … CITE???
The same people who oppose legal abortion are attempting to cripple federal and state family planning programs both by defunding and by administrative regulations. The “human life amendment” would outlaw birth control methods, such as the IUD and mini-pills, which act after fertilization. The charter of Birthright, the anti-abortion “problem pregnancy” counseling organization, prohibits referral for contraception.
OK, remove any other options that may prevent the situation from happening, and then hammer someone (anyone) who gets caught between the rock and the hard place.
The Supreme Court, in 1976, reaffirmed that the right of privacy allows women to be free of governmental interference in decisions about childbearing. The Court struck down parental and spousal consent laws that would allow a parent of husband to veto the abortion decision. The Court said that when a husband and wife disagree, only one view can prevail, and that it should be hers because she “physically bears the child and is more directly affected by the pregnancy.”
Like I akready said, it is a private matter.
91% of abortions are done in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and only 4% after 16 weeks. Tests showing birth defects are not done until the 16th week; and some women do not discover they’re pregnant until this time. Most late abortions are done for health reasons. Ironically, restrictive laws pushed by Right to Lifers, such as mandatory parental involvement and cutoff of Medicaid for poor women’s abortions, cause delay and lead to increased numbers of late abortions.
They aggravate the problem.
Abortions near the point of viability are performed only in extreme medical emergencies when the woman’s life is threatened. A tiny fraction of these cases result in live-born infants, who are given all care necessary to sustain their lives.
In countries where abortion has been legal for years, there is no evidence that respect for life has diminished or that legal abortion leads to killing of any persons. Infanticide, however, is prevalent in countries where the overburdened poor cannot control their childbearing and abortion is illegal.
Hmmmm. Infanticide. What a charming alternative.
If abortion were illegal, well-intentioned but unskilled practitioners would perforate uteruses, misjudge the length of gestation, do incomplete abortions, and otherwise botch the procedure. Women’s health would suffer and the death rate soar. Further, women would once more be forced to break the law to receive medical care, and once more their dignity would be lost in the process.
Ooopsie. they’d also be criminals (if they even survive).