Thoughts on Abortion

One of the more emotionally fraught topics is that of abortion.  Although the bible does not directly refer to abortion as either good or bad, strong Christian fundamentalists have taken a very hard stance against it.  During the days of early human history, the child mortality rate was so high and the low numbers of human kind would have precluded any thoughts about deliberately killing off a potential human life.

Times are different now and the proliferation of humanity and high survival rate of children has significantly changed the situation.  We cannot continue to propagate as we once may have needed to do. 

I am sure that no one likes the thought of aborting a child.  This abhorrent to all of us.  I personally have been very ambivalent towards abortion and see it as only a last choice.  However, I do not think I have the right to decide for another how they want to conduct their life.  If a woman decides she does not want to give birth to a child this is a decision between herself, her physician, the father, and her friends and family and her personal god.   It is our obligation to make sure she understands the consequences of her decision and the various options that are available to her in regards to keeping the child.  It is also our obligation to ensure that if she should decide to complete the abortion that she has the best medical care available to her.

I very much disagree with the fundamentalists who are trying to destroy abortion clinics and intimidate and kill physicians who are providing these services.  There is a significant amount of hypocrisy being demonstrated here.  These same people have no problem pulling out their guns (which in the southern states they seem to worship) and go out and kill animals for food or sport.  Also, in the not too distant past they had no trouble in hanging and torturing black people.   In addition, these same people seem to think it is fine to send their sons and daughters off to war where killing people is an everyday occurrence.  Every second, every minute and every hour animals are abused and killed to provide us sustenance.  We seem to think that they are less than us and have no right to existence other than to provide us what ever we want or need.

Having said all this I still have trouble telling women that it is all right to abort their babies.  We have so much access to contraception that it should only be in extremely limited circumstances that a woman should ever need to have an abortion.  Using abortion as a contraception method is abhorrent and suggests an extreme laziness on the part of the woman seeking it.

I can understand that fundamentalist Christians believe that it is a sin to kill an unborn child and it is their right to feel this way.  I can also understand that they do not want to be seen in anyway supporting this behavior.  We need to work towards a win-win, such that those women who want have an abortion are permitted to do what they choose to do and those who are strongly against it can feel that they have done their best to have their feelings heard and that they have in no way supported the act.  Perhaps there is a way to ensure that none of their tax dollars go to supporting abortion, yet if women choose to go ahead with an abortion then those who do wish to support them can do so.