People often point out what would happen if abortion were banned. Kids would be in bad positions, having to fend for themselves, etc. There is one important element missing from that line of reasoning – these poor, wretched children are ALIVE.
If a person is dead, there is no chance to rise to a better station in life. Who the hell do we think we are to claim that WE can decide for another person whether or not they are better off dead? And if we can, why restrict it only to people in the womb? Let’s start executing the homeless! The druggies! Even people with bad haircuts! Why not? We have the ‘Right’, right?
People say that women should have the choice over whether to carry a child or not. I say they’ve already made that choice – that’s how they got pregnant to begin with. No person has the ‘right’ to dodge the consequences of their own irresponsibility, especially at the cost of another person’s life.
The bottom line is this: once we begin to say one life has more or less value than any other, it devalues that life. Devaluing any life based on arbitrary criteria devalues ALL life. On a specific basis, though, if any life has less worth than a person who would willfully murder her own child – on a whim, no less – I’ve yet to see it. Our one saving grace is that these people who do murder their own infants are, in a measure at least, taking themselves out of the gene pool. Perhaps we should allow abortion, but only with sterilization. That way, these idiotic ‘my wants come first’ tendencies will get washed out of society like a menstrual cycle.
I should add, to be fair, that an infant’s life shouldn’t come before the mother’s either. Just because it is younger does not grant it preferred status. If it did, where would we put the line? Is a six-year-old more ‘valuable’ than a seven-year-old? Again, assigning a lesser value to any life demeans the value of all life.
In most cases, if a mother would die if she’s not allowed an abortion, the baby won’t live either, so her having an abortion would, of course, be the logical thing – though still tragic. Alas, noone can save every life, despite medicine’s best efforts.
If it is a one-or-the-other case, though rare, then – and only then – should the mother be allowed to choose. Her life is ‘worth’ just as much as that infant’s (she may have other children who need their mother, or may yet cure cancer, etc). It is a tough choice, but if she chooses to live herself – and thinks she can live with that choice – then God bless her. Everyone deserves a chance to live.