I’m a bloke. What a woman does with her body is entirely up to her, and nobody else. Who am I to suggest otherwise? I see no reason why abortion, in 2022, should be an issue. To those first-world countries that want to ban abortion, they might as well make slavery and homosexuality illegal again, and ban all women from the workforce. Because their place is in the kitchen and the bedroom, right?
I do agree that all abortion should be treated with care and respect, and that of course means keeping it legal. Are you listening you dumb-fuckers in America? Those mainly Republican goons will next try and ban amputations; how dare doctors interfere with what the good Lord has provided?
Maybe we should put far more effort into providing all our students better sex education, and ensure that all women have easy free access to contraception as soon as they are capable of becoming pregnant.
My native UK legalized abortion when I was just 15 years old, in 1967. The present law allows them in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy in England, Scotland and Wales. For most of my lifetime, abortions have been legal, which is why, rather like drink-driving laws which came in the very same year, I don’t have a problem with either law.
Abortions are also permitted after 24 weeks if the woman’s life is in danger, if there is a severe foetal abnormality, or if the woman is at risk of grave physical and mental injury.
Which rather puts into perspective the plight of the tortured and traumatised Ukrainian women, raped by Putin’s butchers in Bucha, who have had to decline refuge in neighbouring Poland fearing they won’t be able to terminate possible pregnancies under extremely restrictive abortion laws. Not that you need reminding, but it’s 2022, not the frigging middle-ages!
People who think it’s their place to tell women what to do with their bodies have severe personal problems that should require urgent treatment. Maybe it’s a shame their mothers didn’t have the option……
Abortions: yes or no?
I truly admit being no expert on this issue. I am a man, not a woman, so I’ve never faced this problem directly. In the United States, as far as I know, it is a huge ethics issue dividing the nation. It a big deal for the Vatican, too; every pontiff routinely declares his traditional position on this.
But what the heck?
From the ethical point of view, I condemn abortions. Once there’s a conception, a human being is born. In some countries, Russia is not an exception, there’s some medical limitation: to some point, I think 12 weeks, an embryo is not a human being. Then, when this period has expired, he or she is.
But the heart starts beating around 5th or 6th weeks!
So, I am not here to issue decrees; still, I would only permit abortions by medical or criminal (in case of a rape) causes. Otherwise, this is a murder.
Abortion – what do we think?
I do enjoy writing these Blog articles. Each one is different and sometimes I need to do some research before putting pixel to screen. This is not one of those times, I’ll not need any help.
Abortion is what Americans call a “Hot Button Issue”. Cable news (entertainment) networks love to find the most dramatic adjectives and adverbs when running a story on the subject. I have always found the mixture of religion and politics to be highly toxic and this subject is no exception.
The conservative movement in the US is at historic highs and the further right on any subject, the better. The movement is so hyper-conservative now that moderate Republican Senators are openly called pro-pedophile. Not because they are mind you, just because they are not loyal to the most correct views.
Now, throwing the gasoline of abortion into this inferno causes an explosion where open minds dare not tread. There is not and cannot be, thoughtful debate.
The question before the assembled horde today is: Abortion: what do we think? I’ll give you my opinion on the subject. Let’s assume a woman also has a growth on her kidney. Turns out we have two of the suckers so the Doctor says let’s cut one out.
Nobody will say you cannot remove the kidney because that is murder. A kidney, or any other tissue inside our body will never grow into a person. Living tissue is not a person in any sense of the word.
Now, let’s take another, horrid example: A much loved husband is brain dead. He is unconscious and will never recover so it is legal and acceptable to allow this person to die. He is unaware and unconscious so the decision is made to unplug life-support and allow him to die.
If we combine these two examples, I believe we define a person as someone who is conscious, capable of thought and feelings. Clearly killing someone mentally challenged would still qualify as murder under this definition.
I have not heard anyone else define the line between legal abortion and murder as the attainment of awareness but I believe that is where I would place it. What separates us from a kidney is that one has a working brain and the other does not.
Some States now say a fetal heartbeat is the line. I would disagree because if a beating heart were the definition of life then we could not unhook our much-loved, brain dead husband from life support. That would bring a murder charge and serious jail time.
I argue that under the US Constitution, all people are created equal. Fine. Then let us apply that same standard to the unborn, which we do not. The standard for what’s legal largely depends on your state of residence, which strikes me as absurd. Conservative states have more strict abortion laws than liberal states. This should not be allowed to stand in any life and death situation. Laws should be uniform when it comes to how such decisions are made.
So I say that once the fetus attains a working brain, not the random firing of a few neurons but an actual working mind, then that fetus becomes an unborn child and deserves the protection of the police and State law. Until then, its living tissue inside a body and is subject to the same treatment as any other tissue.
Yeah, yeah, I can hear the howls of protest now: The difference between living tissue and a fetus is that that tissue will not grow into a child later. That’s lame-assed logic. By that standard, I can take a gun and kill someone because we will all die later. I can have sex with a sixteen-year old because she will be a woman two years later. Our society, rightly, doesn’t take what will happen later into account when writing laws. :-P…. I may also become a mature adult later, but don’t hold your breath for that one either.