Abortion laws have been much in the news here in Texas. We have passed a restrictive sonogram bill requiring all women who wish an abortion to have a vaginal sonogram taken with a 24 hour waiting period afterwards (2 hours for those who live more than 100 miles away from an abortion provider) before they can have the abortion. While they do not have to look at the picture or listen to the fetal heartbeat the doctor is required to go into detail exactly where the fetus is at in its development based on the sonogram images.
The only exceptions to the doctor’s description of fetal development are in cases of rape, incest or if the fetus is deformed. Apparently though the women will still have to have the sonogram in those cases as there are no exemptions from that requirement.
In a further attempt to restrict abortion the great state of Texas is attempting to put a provision to the state’s Medicaid Women’s Health Program (WHP) that would eliminate funding health service providers that also provide abortion services – in other words Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood, by the way, just happens to be the chief provider of health services for poor women in the state and has always received funding for this service. There are not enough clinics and easily available hospitals who can take up the slack if Planned Parenthood is excluded from providing these health services.
To make it even better they have added a rather nasty provision that if Planned Parenthood successfully challenges this provision. If Planned Parenthood sues and wins then no funds will be provided to the WHP program – depriving all poor women of important health services.
This program serves over 90,000 women in Texas who make less than $1,679 per month and provides them screenings for cancer, hypertension, anemia, sexually transmitted infections, contraceptive information and care and is also often these women’s primary source of medical care. Planned Parenthood serves about 40% of these 90,000 women in this program.
Now this is just in the state of Texas. Other states are enacting similar laws and even at the national level there is a huge debate over whether to continue providing funds to Planned Parenthood even though NONE of the federal money goes for abortion services.
Abortion is and always has been a controversial issue – one that seems to be heating up again. It is also a large issue with many facets to it. Therefore I plan to spend at least two blogs and probably three on this issue – dealing with my own thoughts about abortion and then the various ethical and legal aspects involved. Some of this material is a reworking of blogs I have done on my wife’s Talks Many Moons blog. Some is original. Of course I consider all of it interesting, insightful, meaningful, accurate, well written, and classic.
But that’s just me.
Here I am going to lay out my reasons for being pro choice. First though let me state flat out a few facts.
1) Abortion does kill a life
2) The fetus while totally dependent on the women is not the same as a women’s body.
I wanted to get these out of the way since in my discussions with the anti choice side they quite often try to reduce my reasonings to either a claim that the fetus is not alive or that it is not a separate entity. Instead of arguing against what I have said they argue against what they think I have said and reduce my reasonings to one that they have stock arguments against.
Let me also state that I tend to call myself pro choice/pro life. I do so because while I believe abortion should be an option for women and that decision should be left to the individual woman, I do not advocate it. I do not go out and tell pregnant women that they should have one because they cannot afford another child, because another child would be inconvenient, etc. In fact, I would prefer adoption to abortion whenever possible. Or to avoiding unwanted pregnancy.
I would like abortions to be rare – as rare as possible. It is an uncomfortable decision to abort because it is killing a life and that should be done only after due consideration. However I do know that there are occasions when abortion is the correct decision. When the fetus is deformed so badly that it cannot live or have any sort of quality of life, when the life or health of the mother is in jeopardy, in cases of rape and incest, and, during the first three months, even if it is a decision of pure economics (although there are effective ways to reduce this decisions – which, ironically, many on the anti choice/pro life side oppose).
Anyway – on to my reasonings for supporting abortion.
The pro life movement likes to claim that there is no difference between a fetus and a baby. They are fond of saying that life begins at conception.
That is true.
They say that the life of a fetus is as fully human as a new born baby, a teen, a middle aged person, or an old man, that there is no difference between a fetus and any of the other cases.
That is not true.
There are two basic differences that the pro life people either overlook or ignore. The first is that the woman and her fetus cannot live independently of the mother. The fetus is a physical part of mother, something very different from a newborn baby. Yes, the fetus has separate DNA from the mother but it is the mother’s body that provides the nutrients the fetus needs to live and grow, it is the mother’s body that provides the safe and nurturing environment to the fetus, it is the mother’s body that carries out the waste products – it is the mother’s body and the mother’s body only that provides all that the fetus needs.
A sister, aunt, or stranger can take just as good if not better care of the baby. However they cannot do the same for a fetus. No matter how much outside help a pregnant woman may receive she is the one by far bearing the greatest impact in regards to health, both physical and emotional(as I can readily attest from the personal experience trying to support Dindy during her two pregnancies). That is why birth is such a clear demarcation point. The baby can be reared by someone else.
A mother who is unable to care for her baby – for health reasons, financial, emotional, or any other reason can give the baby up for adoption and have someone else take care of it. The fetus cannot be given up in such a manner, which means that any health risks, financial risks or any other issue must be borne by the woman until the fetus develops enough.
Which brings us to the second difference – Personhood. Is an eight week old fetus a person in the same way that a baby is? Does it have conscious awareness of itself, of its environment? No it does not.
A fetus has the potential to grow and develop into a human. But every child has the potential to become the President, but does that mean we treat each like the President? To equate a potential and elevate it over an actual person, the mother, is wrong. I believe that this is why the great majority of people when faced with a choice between the life of the mother or the life of the fetus choose the mother.
I can’t remember where I got this from and my apologizes to that person for being so forgetful – but imagine you are in a building and a huge fire breaks out. There are two rooms in front of you. One has a case housing 100 embryo’s. The other room has a 60 year old woman. You only have time to save one or the other. Do you save the 60 year old woman or the 100 embryo’s.
I imagine that most would save the 60 year old woman without very little if any hesitation. This highlights the fact that much as the pro choice people might wish we already value the life of a person born over those who are not. The only question really is where do we draw that line – when does the life of the unborn become as important as the born.
For myself, I believe that we should recognize that as the fetus grows and develops it is starting to develop to that same point of independent existence as a newborn baby has. Especially as it starts to develop an awareness of its surroundings and an ability to consciously feel pain. That is why I support a sliding scale version of abortion rights.
During the first trimester it is totally at the discretion of the women. She should be able to have an abortion no questions asked. The second trimester would have more restrictions – emotional and physical well being – and the final trimester an abortion would be performed only if necessary to save the life of the mother. I am open to the exact cutoffs but strongly support this concept.
As for rights, they apply to individuals. Can a fetus be defined as a full individual given that it is totally dependent of the woman’s body and only that woman’s body? That makes this issue different than that of the elderly or handicapped.
Given the pro life people’s position that a fetus is just as important and has all the rights as a person already born then it would only be logical to start assigning the fetus lawyers during those times when a decision has to be made on whether the mother dies or the fetus. Currently in those rare occasions it is left up to the mother and her family and doctor – and is usually decided in favor of the mother.
But if both lives are equal and have the same rights to life then this is not a given. Someone would need to represent the fetus’s rights in a court of law and due process would need to be followed before terminating its life. If this were to ever come about can you imagine the uproar that would follow should a judge or jury decide that the mother should die so that the fetus can live even over the objections of the mother and her family?
Further the idea of a sliding scale (I seem to be stuck on that phrase for some reason) of rights is not new. Do 2 year olds have the same rights that an adult do? Do they have the same rights of association, speech, religion and so forth as an adult? If so, then forget parenting because it would be impossible.
While I have sympathy for the Pro Life position they are greatly oversimplifying the reality. They, and we on the Pro-choice side, would be greatly better off promoting policies and practices that reduce unwanted pregnancies – mainly birth control.
My next blog will discuss whether anti abortion laws really do reduce abortions and what is the best way to actually do so.
The fire and the room with 100 embryos and old lady analogy is from a letter writer to the FWST. Though I’m thinking it probably made it’s rounds before then.
It probably has shown up there. However I think I first encountered it on a creation/evolution debate site. Either way I think it is a good analogy that clearly highlights the relative value both the already born and the unborn.
It must be noted so that women can make righteous voting choices in th near future, that all of this really bad misogynist legislation is coming from the Republican Party which is in fact completely controlled by the religious right.
The Republican party and religious right is 100% committed to putting women down and under control of men and the church again.
They want all decisions concerning females and their reproductive rights to be decided by men…women are not allowed a voice in these matters anymore.
The various fundamental churches want to control family matters with Biblical law.
While I sympathize with the sentiments I think some of your generalizations are too broad. For example, while I do not see myself as voting for a Republican candidate anytime soon they are not a monolithic group. The moderates are still there even though they are facing an uphill struggle against the very conservative religous wing of their party.
I also do not believe they see themselves as putting women under the total domination of men without allowing any woman a say. After all many on the anti choice side are women as are the majority of religious conservatives.
I agree that the results of their actions are to limit a women’s control of her reproduction – especially when they try to outlaw the teaching of birth control and such. However I do not believe that control of a woman is their conscious intent.
I believe that, while acknowledging the negative results of their actions, that we should also be careful and acknowledge their motivations and thinking and not make overly broad generalizations. The devil is in the details and those important details tend to get overlooked in heated debates.
Hello befuddled2, thank you for your thoughtful reply.
Here is some info on what’s happening with the Republican legislators we have voted into office. All of those bills were sponsored by Republicans and it is the controlling fundamentalist wackos in the party who are backing and controlling, through the Republican politicians, this concentrated attack on womens reproductive rights in America.
From the Skepchick blog:
“In the first quarter of this year, 49 state legislatures introduced 916 bills that restricted reproductive rights. Here are a few that have passed, like in Texas, where women must have an invasive ultrasound that they either have to look at or have described to them in detail by a doctor before getting their abortion. Or South Dakota, where there’s now a 72-hour waiting period, and women must get counseling at an anti-choice pregnancy crisis center before obtaining an abortion. No centers applied to be on the official list, so that women would have no way to fulfill the requirements to have an abortion.”
http://skepchick.org/2011/05/the-secular-movements-position-on-womens-rights/
Regarding the women who are anti-choice from the churches, they seem to accept that men should control them. I know a hundred (literally…maybe more) like that. They are sheep and their controllers (men from the church) know this.
I love a good thoughtful dialogue which is what you are providing.
Let me first state that I am not part of the we that put the Republicans into positions of power. I voted for the Democrats – to be honest even though I have always had a tendency to vote democratic I have at times, in days now sadly gone by, voted for individual Republicans. Then and now I considered myself an independent liberal.
However while there are moderate Republicans still and not all Republicans are of hard right right wing religous conservative type that type has taken control of that party overall.
Not entirely though. I do know some Republicans who are atheists. Nor should we overlook the Log Cabin Republicans. And then there are those Republcians such as Senator Olympia Snowe from Maine who does support abortion rights, limited gay rights, and although initially opposed to it did finally vote for repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell along with seven other Republican Senators.
So while the party overall may be strongly influenced and in many cases controlled by the religous right, it is still not totally an organ of that group and still has a moderate wing that can be worked with.
That is why I tend to dislike generalizations. They can be helpful but they also disguise the nuances and differences that can be important and in so doing cause us to overlook ways to work together. And cause us to do injustices to individuals in those groups who do not fit the stereotypes.
Now, if you read my response you will notice that I was talking about their perceptions and motivations and not what the result was. I fully agree the result will be a restriction of a women’s right to control her body. However I do not believe that this is a conscious motivation for most of these people.
For most I believe that they truly believe that a fetus is fully human and has the same full rights as a human already born. They do not make the rational distinctions that I laid out in my blog. Because of this they see this as a moral issue involved in the unjust taking of an innocent life – not as a moral issue involving a woman controlling her reproductive life.
As for women being controlled for men, while this is true in some cases in many others it can be and is often more nuanced than that. Listening to some of the debates withing the religious right and talking with some of these women I have come to see that there is a spectrum of thought on this when applying this to real life situations and not a clear black and white decision.
Of course that is often the case. While we are definitely more comfortable with creating a digital view of how the world works we should alway keep in mind that we are actually dealing with an analogue world.
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