A choice between life and life
“I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.”
- Ronald Reagan
“I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. That’s not pro-life. That’s just pro-birth”
- Sister Joan Chittister
Two hard hitting statements, each tantamount to a well-grounded argument by itself, but when taken together, they do unsettle our conscience and make us question our humanity, or lack thereof.
I could continue to borrow more words from illustrious humans known for their flair of diction, who might be either Pro-choice or Pro-Life, and this exchange of arguments could go on all day long, but that would get us nowhere. So, instead of exchanging arguments, let’s understand arguments, and then you can decide your stance yourself.
Abortion refers to the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, (usually) carried out through approved medical procedures. People who oppose abortion are identified as pro-life, whereas people advocating the legal right of a woman to choose whether or not she will have an abortion are considered pro-choice.
Abortion is one of the most controversial debates which the modern age has posed before us. Politics and religion too, have got entwined with this issue, creating a sorry mess.
Even though I detest how this issue has been turned inside out and exploited by politicians for publicity stunts for their electoral campaigns, especially in the USA, where the Democrats and the Republicans can never seem to agree with each other, I do find some statements made by the last Democrat nominee, Hillary Clinton, worth mentioning:
“We’re always going to argue about abortion, It’s a hard choice and it’s controversial, and that’s why I’m pro choice, because I want people to make their own choices.”
Well put, indeed, for giving birth is much more than simply bringing a human being into this world. It is about taking up the diverse responsibilities of parenthood, of nurturing that child and ensuring its fruitful development.
Another misconception which people have is that pro-choice activists look favourably upon abortion.
Hillary Clinton to the rescue again- “I have met thousands and thousands of pro-choice men and women. I have never met anyone who is pro-abortion.”
Pro choice is NOT a synonym for pro-abortion. No individual cheerfully decides to have an abortion on a fine, sunny morning; it is a carefully thought out, and an agonizingly difficult, choice, which an individual makes. It certainly sounds appropriate that a woman should have the right to choose whether or not to bear a child, because this decision is crucial to her physical and psychological well being, her dignity, her life. When in this regard, someone else’s decision is enforced upon her, be it her family or the government, she is treated as an inferior human being.
If only this would have been so straightforward, but, there’s more than one life at stake here. If we are talking about the right to make one’s own decisions, then on what basis does the woman get to decide whether the foetus should live to see the light or not.
Is humanity applicable only selectively? True, the unborn foetus doesn’t have a national passport while it is still inside the womb, but is that supposed to reduce our perception of it to something less than human?
The argument is that a baby born in a household, or an environment, that cannot provide for it in terms of health, finance, education, opportunity etc. will have such a poor quality of life, that it is better that the young infant not be subjected to this harsh reality at all. However, I am absolutely certain that if we could ask people who have experienced a very difficult childhood, if they would have preferred to have been killed in the womb instead of being born, a significant number of them would choose life over so called “relief”. Life is, despite the innumerable adversities it brings along, still the most precious gift that mankind has been fortunate enough to receive. Are we justified in taking it away?
Arguments on abortion often turn ugly, offensively sexist and inhumane. Abortion procedures can also be the same. In general, if the growth period of a baby is divided into three trimesters, most countries with “liberal” abortion laws, like the US and India, allow abortions until a period which roughly falls under the second trimester. As you would have understood, the more delayed the abortion, the ghastlier is the process, ranging from chemical drugs in the early stages to surgical methods in the later stages.
While abortions are legal under certain conditions in most countries, these conditions vary widely. According to the United Nations publication World Abortion Policies 2013, abortion is allowed in most countries in order to save a woman’s life. Other commonly-accepted reasons are preserving physical (68 percent) or mental (65 percent) health. In about half of countries abortion is accepted in the case of rape or incest (51 percent), and in case of foetal impairment (50 percent). Performing an abortion because of economic or social reasons is accepted in 35 percent of countries. Performing abortion only on the basis of a woman’s request is allowed in 30 percent of countries, including in the US, Canada, most European countries, and China, with 42 percent of the population living in such countries.
Around 56 million abortions are performed each year in the world, with about 45% done unsafely. That is a staggering number.
The thing is, pro-choice or pro-life, abortions need to be minimized, but in the right way. Minimizing abortions is not about preventing women from having abortions. It’s about preventing the need for having an abortion. According to the World Health Organization, abortion rates are similar in countries where the procedure is legal and in countries where it is not, due to unavailability of modern contraceptives in areas where abortion is illegal. What we need is better healthcare laws and facilities, effective and economical contraceptive methods for the masses, proper sex education in schools, availability of family planning options to the common folk, and also to realize the importance of having responsible sex, because abortion is not only about the choice you make now, it’s also about the choices you made.
So, how does one choose between two lives?
I sincerely hope you will never need to answer that question.
For more content like this, visit: www.theglobalidiot.com
