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I am pro-choice, but not because women's rights are being trampled (Sat, 18 May 2019 22:13:00 +0000)
I am pro-choice, but not because I think pro-life laws enacted in 2019 trample on the rights of women.
I don't think politicians wake up in the morning wondering how to control women's bodies. A woman may think it's profound to tell her Facebook friends she has the right to do anything she wants with her body, and there should be no legal restrictions. But here's the thing:
- Extreme pro-life positions ignore the mothers, even though mothers have value.
- Extreme pro-choice positions ignore the fetuses, even though fetuses have value.
Some women do not have a choice in their sexual and reproductive lives. They may be abused, oppressed, raped, poor, uneducated, etc. No one is "pro-abortion", but some women are in catastrophic situations and they need relief. Maybe Roe v. Wade is abused by some women as a way to deal with the consequences of their own bad choices, but RvW helps those women who had no choices. We cannot simply ignore those choice-less women, as terrible as an abortion is. A million abortions are performed in the USA annually, and legal restrictions will result in illegal abortions. Even if there are potential adoptive parents waiting for babies, adoption is complicated and not a reason to restrict abortion. I am pro-choice.
We won't stop pro-life laws by complaining about how they restrict women. All laws restrict someone, in favor of someone else. We have to find the compromise, but today there are three sides, (1) extreme pro-life (no abortions ever), (2) extreme pro-choice (fetuses have no value unless the mother says so), (3) non-extreme, who don't know how to resolve this.
The Christian perspective is that "it" (whatever it is) is about everyone else, and not about me. When applied to abortion, a woman needs to consider the fetus, the father, the healthcare providers, etc. So yeah, I am pro-choice, but don't tell me you should not be restricted from getting an abortion because, damn the fetus, it's your choice. Mothers matter. Fetuses matter. Men care, we really do, and you won't (and shouldn't) resolve the abortion debate without men. Personally, I think the compromise is to restrict third trimester abortions, but whatever the compromise is, we should find it without the help of the Supreme Court.