Abortion Post the First: The LAME Arguments

[raefinlay]

I was a card-carrying pro-lifer. I made the signs and walked the “Walk of Life” and cowered slightly when pro-choice, militant feminists yelled obscenities and threw rotten peaches at me. I donated money to anti-abortion programs.

 

It felt like the right thing to do. Human life is sacred, right? And everyone I loved and trusted most was convinced that the pro-life view was the only right one, the only moral one, the only Godly one. There were “proof texts” in the Bible used by all my pastors that, as far as I could tell, only peripherally related to abortion, but those guys were smarter than me and what did I know?

 

A few years ago, I finally started asking myself the tough questions. It was hard to distance myself from the emotion of it. In fact, emotionally, I will always be anti-abortion. Though I’ve never had an abortion myself, dear friends of mine have, and it was hard to watch and experience their pain. Abortion is not an easy answer, no matter what one’s views, and even when one is completely convinced that it’s the right thing to do, the social excoriation is excruciating.

 

I’m going to write this out in two parts. This part could be subtitled: Some LAME Arguments Used in the Abortion Debate. The next post, later this week and hidden under a heavy-lifting cut tag, will be: Why Current Christian Biblical Proof Texts are LAME and Why a Bible-Thumping Fundamentalist Could Be Pro-Abortion.

 

So, for today, the LAMENESS of two major, current arguments.

 

 

L.A. from the left: A woman has the right to do what she wants to her own body. OMG, just stop already. A fetus is not part of the woman’s body. An itty-bitty zygote is not part of the woman’s body. It has its own set of DNA, completely unique from the mother’s. It meets every scientific definition for life all in its own right.  Actually, if we want to get technical and precise, then the correct definition for an unborn baby is “parasite.”

 

However, even if a fetus were part of a woman’s body, a woman does not, never has, and probably never will have the right to do anything she wants to it. If I went to the doctor and asked him to please, please, please cut off my arm, he would think I was a crazy person. No matter how much I wanted to cut off my arm, he would not do it for me. Here’s a key point: Abortion is possible, legal, and safe precisely because a fetus is not part of a woman’s body.

 

Accepting that a fetus is life all on its own leads us to the essential question that should be at the forefront of the debate: Does a woman have the right to make choices about her body and her future when another potentially-human life is involved and may die as a result?

 

Slight aside: A pro-lifer would insert “innocent” right before human life in that question. But that adjective assumes human sentience and rights. Here’s what we have so far:  Is a fetus part of a woman’s body? No. Is it “life?” Yes. Is it human life? Absolutely (it can be no other kind of life.) Is it sentient human life deserving of all the rights of a human member of society? Ah, now THERE is a good question. That question might be worth a third post. *sigh*

 

L.A. from the right:  Abortion is unsafe. It causes great physiological and emotional trauma to the mother. *dies of the dumbness* Abortion is one of the safest procedures in the world. Maternal mortality in the U.S.—in other words, the number of women who kick the bucket due to pregnancy and birth related stuff—is approximately 21 for every 100,000. (Article 1, Article 2) Here’s the kicker: Maternal mortality from UNSAFE abortion in the U.S. is only about 1 in 100,000. Maternal mortality from SAFE abortion is comparable to getting a shot of penicillin. This means that in the U.S., a woman is 20 times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy/birth than of an abortion. Abortion is SAFER than full term pregnancy.

 

In developing countries, the mortality rate for UNsafe abortions climbs as high as 100 per 100,000, but that is still fairly comparable to the maternal mortality rate for those countries in general.

 

As far as the emotional trauma is concerned, I have not been able to find a study comparing post-abortion depression to post-partum depression. I have also not been able to find a study comparing post-abortion issues among pro-choicers to those of pro-lifers who did the secret abortion thing. I suspect that pressures and beliefs from one’s social circle could influence this heavily, but I’m just not sure. So I can only theorize. But that’s all anyone can and should do until such studies are done. Also, the possible side effects of abortion are widely touted as being omg awful (uterine scarring, infertility, bleeding, infection, etc.), but nowhere do I see this compared to the side effects of full term pregnancy (*copy/pastes* uterine scarring, infertility, bleeding, infection, etc.) Again, the pro-life side is making arguments without anything to back them up.

 

So there you have it, two of the lamest arguments ever. I’m currently learning about the psychology and brain patterns of babies and fetuses, trying to determine at what point a baby becomes sentient. I think it’s safe to say that with modern technology, a fetus becomes viable at about 6 mos gestation—but only if the mother has great health insurance.

 

Next post: How Surprised I Was To Learn that The Bible Argument Against Abortion is LAME

 

More reading:

The wikipedia entry on maternal mortality. It’s a bit outdated—the pertinent study was done in 2000, and m.m. has been on the rise since—but it’s good reading.

 

And here is a really great study the religious right uses to draw crappy conclusions. (Pro-lifers never ever cite other, peripheral reasons for the findings, such as social ostracision and pressure, religion-induced guilt, the burden of keeping a secret, etc.)

 

Comments

[therinth.livejournal.com]

Oddly, if they were SO FREAKING CONCERNED with mother-infant health, we would have NATIONALIZED HEALTH CARE already.

Perhaps then we would get to have the same infant mortality ratios as, oh, i dunno, EVERY SINGLE OTHER first would country?

(I feel a bit strongly about this. Sorry. *ahem*.)

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

Thank you, yes.

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

Perhaps while you're going through the bible looking for lame abortion arguments, you can find the places where Jesus says that people who follow his teachings should spend as much of their time as possible telling other people what to do.

[hkneale.livejournal.com]

Right on, Rae.

The arguments they use are indeed quite lame.

Me, I believe abortion should be legal, safe and rare. When one decides how legal abortion should be, one must take into account all reasons for an abortion.

I myself feel that abortion should be legal and freely available in cases of rape, incest, where the mother's life is in danger, or where the baby has some sort of medical condition that will make it unviable outside the womb.

I do NOT like it being used as a form of birth control when a woman has been irresponsible about sex. That just smacks of immaturity.

As for the actual procedure(s) itself, I would like to see it be as medically safe as possible. Here in Australia, the most common procedure is one called Dilation & Curettage (D&C), and is done under general anaesthetic. It is not just for "killing these poor, innocent lives before they've had a chance to be born." It has other, necessary, medical reasons.

When my first baby died in utero at eight weeks, my body did not dispel it. I had to go in and have an D&C. Believe me, I'm so glad it was a safe procedure.

Personally, I'm into early-prevention. I'm in the camp that a woman should make the sorts of choices and conduct herself in a way that she will be unlikely to have to be faced with the decision of whether or not to have to get an abortion.

I tend to lean towards the Pro-Life camp, but I'm also into the Every Child a Wanted Child frame of mind.

[silkpajamas.livejournal.com]

One big problem with abortion being against the law is that women don't get support they need when they do get pregnant. A woman will be shamed for giving her baby up for adoption. A woman will be criticized (less these days) for having a baby at young age. She surely isn't supported much.

Please notice, I'm not saying whether abortion is right or wrong. I'm saying the whole setup is wrong. Those who are against abortion (religious right groups) don't want condoms handed out either.

IMO, the religious right wants to close their eyes to the problem and hope unwanted pregnancies will just go away. The religious right (as a stereotyped group) doesn't support condoms, welfare, or even birth control.

I could possible agree to no abortion or strict laws on abortion if all birth control was supported by the government. Why isn't it when both sexes engage in sex to complete a pregnancy. Why should a woman foot the bill and the responsibility?

One last thing: (sorry I can't use a cut on your blog) Many people (church people or not) who frown on abortion have engaged in sex outside of marriage. Since sex outside of marriage can potentially cause a pregnancy, I vote that anyone who has engaged should abstain from voting against abortion.

Obviously, we need a paradigm shift, but I think (and you may correct me) that strict Christians aren't even allowed to engage in dialogue about this subject.

Note: I've never had an abortion. Several of my friends have had them. I have three friends who gave up babies when they were very young. These babies are probably looking for their parents now. This topic is HUGE.

[affinity8.livejournal.com]

I read a very interesting article a few years back about people who do find doctors and pay them to amputate perfectly good limbs. These people have a sense of "wrongness" in their complete bodies and though you and I would say they're nuts, the article was careful to explore it from a balanced perspective.

I want to say it was The Atlantic or New Yorker but I'm not sure, and this was in the years before del.icio.us.

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

Well, quite obviously I support a woman's right to choose. I don't think the state has any right to tell a person that they can't make decisions regarding their future, their health and yes... their bodies. I'm probably a little more extreme than you in the personal liberties department considering I believe that if a person went to a doctor and wanted a testicle removed, then they should be allowed to have that sucker lopped of then and there. I support a person's right to end their life if they so choose. I think what the state did to Jack Kevorkian is criminal. He provided a service that people obviously wanted. It infuriates me that the state of Oregon has passed a "right to die" act multiple times only to have the Feds cut it down. I think that's wrong. If I want to end my life, that is my right. Period.

My opinion on abortion is... well... to use Bill Clinton's words, I think that abortion should be safe, legal and rare. I think we need to stop with all of this "abstinence-only" bulls**t and actually start teaching REAL sex-education to the children which yes, incorporates abstinence as a viable alternative. But we need to get over this Victorian mindset about sex and realize that if we actually teach sex, if we teach proper contraceptive methods, teach the risks and dangers of disease, dispel the myths and taboos surrounding sex and offer viable alternatives to abortion... like say fixing a badly broken Children's Services system, then the abortion is going to pretty much be a moot point.

What really kills me about these rabid pro-lifers is that you'll see the same people on the picket line outside of planned parenthood in the morning and then outside of a pro-death penalty rally in the evening. Every life is sacred? Yeah right.

[janeorben.livejournal.com]

I went through the same type of thinking you have in college, except that I started out vaguely pro-choice. I started thinking more deeply about the subject when a young hard-core feminist friend of mine got very emotionally and insisted that a woman should have a right to have an abortion in the fourth week of the last month of pregnancy for whatever reason. I knew all the good reasons why abortion needed to be legal, but I hadn't studied the other side, so I hadn't figured out where I ethically drew a line.

I went to Catholic HS and a priest at my school once said that abortion was a "black and white issue," but little could be farther from the truth! When I looked into the Roe v. Wade ruling, I found out that it was in fact full of subtly and attention to both the health of the women in the different stages of pregnancy and the development and viability of the unborn at the different stages.

I am convinced that there is a middle ground on this issue. Bob Casey, a pro-life Democrat in Pennsylvania was asked about this, and he said that for starters, people on both sides want there to be less abortions and less unwanted pregnancies. If we started making policies based on what we agree on (such as policies that support poor women who are pregnant, and better sex education and access to birth control before kids become sexually active) then we'd be able to do something that really helps people, as well as have civil and intelligent conversations about these hard issues.

Anyway, one of my dear heroes, Carl Sagan, wrote this essay about the middle ground on the abortion issue with his wife. The latter part especially deals with the specifics of fetal development:

http://www.2think.org/abortion.shtml

[sarahbrand.livejournal.com]

I think I'm about to get kicked out of the computer lab, so for now I'll just say that I'm about where you are (emotionally pro-life, logically pro-choice). IMO Obama hit the nail on the head at the Saddleback thing, when he said that women don't make these decisions lightly. Ironically, that seems a more conservative view (in the "limited government" sense) ... trusting people to control their own lives.

But as you said, it's not just the mother's own life. Another stupid left argument is that if you protect a zygote, you'd have to protect eggs and sperm... when really, potential life and eventual life are two utterly different things.

I think, although I may be totally making this up, that countries where abortion is legalized actually have fewer abortions (per capita?) than countries where it is illegal. Although I imagine legalized abortion probably goes hand in hand with a more enlightened approach to birth control, which would account for the difference.

... yup, getting kicked out now, which is good because my brain was moving on to abstinence-centric sex ed, which would be a long rant and a bit off-topic.

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

Feel free to write as much in my blog as you want to, anytime. :-)

In my experience, Christians do discuss this a lot, but there's no room socially or culturally for middle-of-the-road positions.

And yes, this topic is HUGE. Giving up babies for adoption could be a whole 'nother post or two.

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

Wow...I didn't know that.

I tried to convince a doctor to give me hysterectomy. But she refused, so certain was she that I didn't really know what I wanted. I still wish I could have one.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Likewise, some people would say that some radical plastic surgery or radical facial tattoos and piercings are more disfiguring than cutting off an arm.

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

I'm not convinced that Kevorkian was not an insane sociopath. I suspect he couched his homicidal acts in terms of helping people. He might even be the hero of his own story. But anyone on a "mission" to help people kill themselves is suspect.

I could be convinced otherwise if, say, you had some good arguments and were willing to share. *hints subtley*

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

lol... if I had good arguments that Kevorkian wasn't an insane sociopath? Or convinced that people should be able to take their own lives?

Great post by the way... I enjoyed reading that.

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

That is a GREAT essay. Thank you.

[janeorben.livejournal.com]

Adoptive parents are the kids' parents. I know people who've been adopted who could look up their birth parents and chose not to. And I've known adopted people who developed a relationship as an adult with their birth parent or parents. But the parents are the people who do the hard work of lovingly raising and a child.

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

If you really wanted to get into the "human potential" argument, you could outlaw NOT having sex. Or make it illegal to scratch your armpit. (All that destroyed DNA!)

I think this is at the heart of the Catholic Church's traditional stance against contraception, though thankfully that is changing.

[janeorben.livejournal.com]

I don't think Kevorkian's mission should be thought of as any grosser than many of medical positions which involved things which seem disgusting to any average person.

I've been involved with organized Humanism for over a decades, and two things have been consistent about humanist communities across the USA - they tend to have more older people (think retired) and they are strongly in favor of the right to die. A few relatives of mine are nurses who have done end of life care, and when you see a lot of that you do start to have sympathy for people who are clearly at the end of their life but just hanging on in great pain. We've frequently said that my husband's grandmother would have been better off had she died in surgery after she broke her hip at the age of 94, because the last year and a half she hung on after that was pure heartache and misery - losing her house, her mind, and her body becoming more and more frail. I think it takes deep compassion to be willing to help people in such situations die. Because it isn't pretty at all, but neither is the alternative.

[janeorben.livejournal.com]

Funny statistic is that U.S. Catholic women tend to use birth control more than the population of women at large in the United States. Of course the reason is education - in the USA Catholics tend to be better educated.

Plus, being pregnant before marriage and abortion are BOTH horribly stigmatized (at my Catholic HS pregnant girls were not allowed to attend Prom!), so you bet teen girls who attend Catholic schools are motivated to use condoms!

[aimeempayne.livejournal.com]

My thoughts on abortion are that it doesn't matter if a fetus is a human with full rights of citizenship, it doesn't have the right to use my body. If can't be forced to donate a kidney to save (theoretical) offspring, why should I be forced to donate my body to incubate (again, theoretical) offspring.

[silkpajamas.livejournal.com]

In my experience, Christians do discuss this a lot, but there's no room socially or culturally for middle-of-the-road positions.

I guess it's more accurate to say that conservative Christians and other people to the far right don't publicly suggest any solution but abstinence. So they are part of the problem themselves.

I'd love to see an honest poll to find out how many people are telling everyone else how to behave when they've slipped up themselves. We see this with public officials who get caught. What about the people who don't get caught? People are human.

An awful lot of people are hypocrites. They tell other people how to behave, even though they slip up at some point. Slipping once even one time is a potential baby.

This is another topic, but we need to look at sex and abstinence differently, without the guilt component (which keeps the shrinks in business). Virginity isn't a sought after goal in public schools, and kids--especially girls--are having sex for the wrong reasons, before they're even ready. They don't cherish the gift they are giving to someone else and to themselves.

[silkpajamas.livejournal.com]

Adoptive parents are the kids' parents. I know people who've been adopted who could look up their birth parents and chose not to. And I've known adopted people who developed a relationship as an adult with their birth parent or parents. But the parents are the people who do the hard work of lovingly raising and a child.

Adoption is a wonderful thing; it's a difficult option for the birth mother in most cases. Even though the outcome can be very rewarding, most people would say, "How can she give away her baby?"

[silkpajamas.livejournal.com]

I need to add one more thing. I have friends who were adopted. And I have a close friend who adopted her daughter. She and her husband are wonderful parents, and their daughter is amazing. My comment was very one-sided, just to make a point about difficult choices and the long-term effects. But I went overboard a little bit.

[therinth.livejournal.com]

But is a woman who is immature enough to require abortion as a form of birth control the type of woman who will go on to become a well educated and brilliantly skilled mother?

[silk-noir.livejournal.com]

I appreciate you talking about this but I decided I will not read much or through the comments because I will just lose my temper and I don't need that.

Having worked at an abortion clinic for over a decade, having talked to women in all stages of abortion counseling, experiencing personal harrassment, having testified before a grand jury--augh.

Carry on, women.