# What is the point of abolishing abortion? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 30, 2024, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471 "2024-08-30T16:00:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/21 "2024-08-30T17:53:17Z")
My sister posted on FB _My cat was intensely interested in my baby bump while I was pregnant, but when my daughter was born, couldn’t care less about the baby. What a weird way to find out that your cat is a Republican._ (Full disclosure: my sister and many of her kids are allergic to cats, and she doesn’t have one. And it might have been posted by my BIL) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/22 "2024-08-30T17:53:48Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > But I believe many conservative Protestants support using birth control. Only for married people. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/23 "2024-08-30T17:54:55Z")
I think that all of you bashing fundamentalist Christians on this subject forget that they are just trying to follow Jesus’s teachings on abortion. We all remember what Jesus said about that, right? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/24 "2024-08-30T17:59:20Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > It’s also about control. Keep women in their place. Outlaw abortion, then contraceptives, then no-fault divorce. If they manage all that the next target will be re-legalizing spousal rape. Barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, as God intended. Yes, this. To the true right-winger, it’s crucial to restore God’s Righteous Hierarchy: white (straight, of course, and Christian, of course) men on top. Then other men who by definition are second-class citizens. Then the females they all own. For a female to believe she has some right to make choices about her own body is Against God’s Law. Birth control, IVF, abortion—all these give females that false idea. Females need to learn that it is the decision of their owners to breed them and when to breed them and how many times to breed them. For the females’ own protection, of course. (It really is that ugly. Insecure men are capable of _any_ cruelty, because they believe such cruelty and dehumanization will enable them to hide and/or assuage their own insecurity.) ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/25 "2024-08-30T18:02:04Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > _My cat was intensely interested in my baby bump while I was pregnant, but when my daughter was born, couldn’t care less about the baby. What a weird way to find out that your cat is a Republican._ OK, this made me laugh out loud. My wife is Catholic, and I’m not. I have had some, well, interesting discussions with her family about abortion over the past 45 years. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/26 "2024-08-30T18:05:31Z")
It isn’t just the idea sex should be restricted to married people that informs some of their thinking but also that sex should only be for procreating. Having sex for pleasure is evil and contraception makes it easier. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/27 "2024-08-30T18:17:49Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > > [@Procrustus](#): > > > > The fact that married women might want or need an abortion seem to them to be such a rare thing that it wasn’t worth modifying their policy to cover. > > How about the thought that unmarried women might want to have sex? They didn’t think that was a good idea. As in not good for the unmarried woman, and probably not what she “really” wants. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/28 "2024-08-30T18:21:03Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > Having sex for pleasure is evil When I was in college and grad school, I spent several years as a member of an Evangelical Christian campus organization. Based on what I saw from the people I knew there (both fellow students, and staff members with the organization), I don’t think that the above is a universally-held belief among them. I knew several young married couples who very much enjoyed being able to have sex frequently, and were eager to tell others that they enjoyed the pleasure in sex with their spouses; I suspect that they saw it as a way to encourage singles within the organization to get married\* (i.e., “you have this to look forward to!”) That said, even if they enjoyed sex, they certainly also recognized the procreative aspect of it. \*- This seemed to be one of the core things that the organization encouraged: they did a lot of matchmaking, through (chaperoned) mixers and parties, in order to get the student members to partner up, and start (chastely) dating, with an eye towards getting them married. ---
**Author:** ![We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/We_re_wolves_not_werewolves)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/29 "2024-08-30T18:27:04Z")
I believe abortion is the killing of a human life. Consequently, I think birth control should be freely available to anyone that wants it. Because the last think a logical pro-lifer should want is someone getting pregnant who does not want to be pregnant, since it follows that such a person is more likely to seek an abortion than someone who desires to get pregnant. Any other position on birth control is rooted in the desire to control, rather than the desire to minimize abortion. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/30 "2024-08-30T18:30:29Z")
I would agree that Evangelicals are more likely to encourage an active sex life within a marriage. Contraception like condoms and the pill are perfectly okay with them in my experience. Not so much with the more conservative Roman Catholics. [Rick Santorum has said sex for pleasure is a bad idea.](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/02/rick-santorum-wants-your-sex-life-to-be-special/253104/) Maybe this isn’t official church policy but there are definitely people who still look at it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/31 "2024-08-30T18:34:31Z")
> [@Rebo](#): > > I’m so confused. You’ve put way more thoughtful consideration into the consequences of this issue than the authors of the _Project 2025 Initiative_ have. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Shhhh… we’re not supposed to talk about Project 2029 yet. [The proto-documentary is preparing for it’s sixth series.](https://youtu.be/OsQoGB-kyzo?si=IyUNTsig-DPTFfO1) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/32 "2024-08-30T18:36:15Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > Not so much with the more conservative Roman Catholics. [Rick Santorum has said sex for pleasure is a bad idea.](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/02/rick-santorum-wants-your-sex-life-to-be-special/253104/) To be fair, what he’s saying there is that sex that is _simply_ for pleasure, and does not contain the other two elements that Catholics believe should be part of sex (the openness to procreation, and the “unitive” purpose – reinforcing the emotional bond between husband and wife), is a bad idea. From the article you linked to: > [@](#): > > One of the things I will talk about that no president has talked about before is I think the dangers of contraception in this country, the whole sexual libertine idea… It’s not okay because it’s a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be. They’re supposed to be within marriage, for purposes that are, yes, conjugal… but also procreative. > > That’s the perfect way that a sexual union should happen. We take any part of that out, we diminish the act. And if you can take one part out that’s not for purposes of procreation, that’s not one of the reasons, then you diminish this very special bond between men and women, so why can’t you take other parts of that out? And all of a sudden, it becomes deconstructed to the point where it’s simply pleasure. And that’s certainly a part of it–and it’s an important part of it, don’t get me wrong–but there’s a lot of things we do for pleasure, and this is special, and it needs to be seen as special. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/33 "2024-08-30T18:36:24Z")
Slight correction: Sex is not supposed to be enjoyable _for the female._ Ask conservative men if _they_ enjoy sex and see what happens. ---
**Author:** ![We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/We_re_wolves_not_werewolves)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/34 "2024-08-30T18:42:31Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > Not so much with the more conservative Roman Catholics. [Rick Santorum has said sex for pleasure is a bad idea.](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/02/rick-santorum-wants-your-sex-life-to-be-special/253104/) Maybe this isn’t official church policy but there are definitely people who still look at it that way. The Catholic Church doesn’t say sex for pleasure is bad, but it does hold that sex should 1) only take place within the bonds of marriage, and 2) it should always be open to the possibility of conception, so any artificial birth control is technically forbidden (“natural” birth control such as natural family planning is acceptable). It’s a policy that most Catholics seem to quietly not follow as far as I can tell. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/35 "2024-08-30T18:43:03Z")
> [@Rebo](#): > > What is the extreme right’s reasoning behind abolishing abortion? And the subsequent stopping of contraception, and IVF (which doesn’t even fit in the same category, IMHO.) They believe that abortion is equivalent to killing a child, and so is the destruction of fetuses by other means such as in IVF. The premise is wrong, but the conclusion _does_ logically follow from the premise. It really isn’t complicated. > [@Rebo](#): > > I’ve heard of the Project 2025 reasons of “having more white babies born” to counteract the fact that more brown people are coming in. Project 2025 says a lot of odious things, but that is not one I have heard yet. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/36 "2024-08-30T18:47:04Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I think that all of you bashing fundamentalist Christians on this subject forget that they are just trying to follow Jesus’s teachings on abortion. We all remember what Jesus said about that, right? > [@Jesus - Matthew 15](#): > > For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ Which I take to be a reference to Deuteronomy 21:18-21 and God’s law that you must deliver your disobedient child to be murdered by the town, if he’s disobedient to you. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/37 "2024-08-30T18:47:11Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I used to visit a pro-life site and interact with the nice people there. They honestly believed that “sex without consequences” was simply a way for men to have an easier time pressuring women to have sex without marriage. They thought that was bad for women, and they didn’t mind a policy to “protect” women, even from their own choices. Real men marry you and then have sex. The fact that married women might want or need an abortion seem to them to be such a rare thing that it wasn’t worth modifying their policy to cover. This is probably the 2nd most common reason after actual opposition to abortion itself. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/38 "2024-08-30T18:48:30Z")
You are supposed to hold the Bible while pontificating, and not actually _read_ it. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/39 "2024-08-30T18:52:21Z")
Christian here. I believe abortion is murder. Its legal and I would not fight to make it illegal. Women don’t really want to have sex just for the sake of it with lots of different men. Why? Hormones. Sex isn’t just an activity, its joining yourself to another person spiritually. Men do use women for sex. If its meaningless to women, I suggest they start charging for it. No, I’m not going read any pit comments people want to post to me about this. What I don’t understand is if its okay to kill your child because its not viable, why not continue that with people on life support or who are inconvenient for some reason. I do wish there was easy, free birth control that was 100% successful. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471/40 "2024-08-30T18:54:59Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > Women don’t really want to have sex just for the sake of it with lots of different men. Why? Hormones. This comment reflects a great deal of ignorance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-abolishing-abortion/1006471.md?page=3)