I actually thought this poster was funny.
Boy, this might be a volatile post. Let’s hold our breath on this one. Somebody recently asked me my particular viewpoint regarding abortion. Over the years I have wrestled with this for two reasons.
First, I am a male. For some reason that kinda lends itself to not being qualified by gender to have an opinion one way or the other. I’m not the one getting pregnant, I’m not the one bearing the child for nine months and subject to nature’s instinctive desire for nurturing, and, of course, I am not subject to whatever pain and mood swings come and go.
The second reason… if I presume to be pro-life then there’s that question for the purpose of establishing legal precedent, at what point does a fetus become a life worth keeping?
Now, regarding my first reason… not being female and understanding what a female goes through… I realize that a man is generally part of the process for a woman getting pregnant so by that association I suppose a man can have a say.. just not sure how loud that say is.
So I can’t really say yea or nay one way or the other. But there are a couple solid elements of these two views I can sort out. For example, the essence of the pro-life opinion is that all life, because it IS life, deserves to live, and that man should not play God in determining what life lives or dies… and only God can play God. That’s a fair argument to many because that is a moral and spiritual acceptance of God’s power over all things. Then I think, “Well, what about when we execute criminals. Aren’t we playing God there?” If the pro-life moralists hold to their position that all life is precious, then they must surely be against the death penalty. Right? Yet, some are and some aren’t.
Another issue I have with some pro-life arguments is that there are those pro-life people who will compromise their position by suggesting that abortions are okay when a woman’s health is at risk, and following rape. This is where I have a problem. If you firmly believe morally that all life is precious then how can one allow killing a life for another life for health reasons, or killing a life following rape. After all, one could go as far as to interpret those health issues and the rape itself as some kind of divine intervention, the will of God that you are to be raped and have a child. A child from rape is a living thing as well.
I tend to lean at pro-choice because I tend to be more practical in my application of reality vs. religion. If a woman was raped one could call that divine intervention and leave it alone. I accept a reality that the woman will likely have emotional trauma from the physical violation and may not even be an effective parent to that child, it being a constant living reminder of the assault. An unexpected child also is a life changer. If your life was proceeding ahead on your own terms then suddenly an assault makes you pregnant and you are expected to carry the child to term… your life is changed forever. Carrying this further, if the victim keeps the child and the parent is unable to care for it financially then does it become a ward of the state? You might think, well, put it up for adaption and give a loving family a chance to raise it. Well, that will haunt the mother/victim as well knowing the baby is alive out there in the world… and guilt becomes an issue that could lead to depression. The whole thing is far more complex than just sitting back and using God as a reason for allowing a child to be born from a rape. It’s more like, God says keep the child and let the humans work out the details.
Yet, again, having a pro-choice opinion then requires a legal establishment of at what point in the development of the fetus does life exist and how far into the term should the fetus be able to be aborted. One popular notion is that a child becomes life at birth… but at what point can it be terminated prior to birth?
There is a political side of this that can be shared with pro-life people. This is the basic dispute with SCOTUS upholding the Roe vs. Wade decision. If public monies can be used to terminate pregnancies (presumably through welfare health care) then by extension, the taxpayer dollars of Americans who object on moral grounds, are financing the termination of life.
[We can probably fix this real easy. Just have a question on your tax return…
“Do you want your tax payment to pay for abortions? YES NO” Circle NO and all will be well, I am sure of it.]
Yet another example of the separation of church and state in America not being so separate. Abortion is a complex issue all around and it’s one social issue I have a tough time forming an opinion. I do tend to lean pro-choice, as I said. But I am far from firm on that.
In essence, just because I might lean pro-choice does not one bit mean I am pro-abortion.
Now… what about assisted suicide? Deciding if I am allowed to kill myself seems a bit easier to take sides. But that’s for another post.
Random Palaver From An Aging Baby Boomer 
I am firmly in favour of a woman’s right to choose whether or not to carry a child. It it such a huge thing, and can have unknown impact on the lives of women, it can really only be up to them to decide. After all, the contraceptive pill does something very similar, albeit earlier, and that’s legal pretty much everywhere. If you bring God into it (and I don’t) what about heart transplants, kidney transplants, and such? Blood transfusions, even face transplants. The list of man fiddling with nature is endless, and I see termination of pregnancy in the same way.
I am also firmly in favour of voluntary euthanasia. As a pet owner, I have never let an animal suffer needlessly, but I had to watch my own Mother die slowly in agony, because nobody was ‘allowed’ to end her suffering. To listen to her asking to die was as bad as anything I can remember.
Best wishes, Pete.
And I agree, that sign was clever and amusing. 🙂
Pete… my mother also died of cancer, although it was not painful for her… and by many standards it was quick.. and she rather expected it coming since she had been a smoker all her life. But I am so deeply sorry you watched her die.. and having to witness her cries to end her own life. I cannot fathom that experience. You have my deepest respect and condolence for you and your mother’s experience. For a son to watch that happen… and not want to take some action.. I am so sorry, Pete. Let the so called do-gooders witness that once and let’s see how THEY react. Truly, something needs to be done.
I recall about a decade ago the news did a segment on the increasing efforts of seniors stockpiling certain prescription drugs in order to prepare for making the final decision at the end.. taking an overdose of something.
Here’s a sad reality… I like guns for all the fun reasons.. and years back I had the collections, but it had to get sold to make it through a period of unemployment. Now I have little money to buy a gun. But do you know, given all the crap that man can die off that’s debilitating, I’m actually considering buying a gun just as an insurance policy if my physical situation goes badly with a stroke or some crazy cancer. I certainly have no inclination for “casual” suicide.. but I’m not going to spend my last days needing a drool cup should that ever occur. Amazing what we are forced to do because of the morality of others in this country.. and I suspect your country as well.
My thing is that I believe that birth and death are natural occurrences dictated by natural laws that have been working very well as designed for eons and that when Mankind tries to impose their will upon the natural order of things there are bound to be all kinds of consequences … I think Humans should be satisfied to be Human and stop trying to play God with things they cannot possibly understand.
There’s something in what you say and that’s certainly a common thought. For me, on the other hand, humanity would not be where we are.. to this point in time chatting on a PC, if man had not challenged his/her environment. I tend to favor that we are simply another living species that’s part of the grand scope of nature.. and not a separate player at all. I trust since nature (or the Almighty) has imposed upon us the natural selection ability to reason rather than programmed instinct that there’s also a “plan” to take care of us if/when we go too far. Quite honestly, our ever increasing population will trigger nature’s wrath soon enough I fear.
Mankind is as free to sin as Mankind wishes to be. I say let the murderers of the unborn take their chances when they meet their Maker face to face.