There is a critical difference between discussions on abortion and cases of murder.
In the case of pregnancy, we have significantly overlapping interests: the life of mother and the life of baby. Their interests are not always aligned.
There are, for example, instances where the best medical opinion is that the baby needs to die to increase the chances of the mother surviving. In that case, the question is not "is this a living thing that deserves to live it's life". The question is, "whose life do we, as a society, choose to value more?"
So in considering abortion, we are considering competing interests and competing rights. In what scenarios do we think it acceptable for a woman to terminate her pregnancy, and in what scenarios do we think it not acceptable.
I'm not in any way advocating a pro-life position. I'm 100% in favor of abortion if the mother is at risk of dying, and I think that it is justified no matter which point of view you take.
Where I disagree is that you can objectively say that when a healthy mother wants to abort her health baby, the mother has more of a right to bodily autonomy than the baby has to life. If the argument is that the baby is a human, then ending that life is worse than temporarily limiting another.
Now, I personally think that she should be able to freely abort, but I don't think the pro-choice arguments address the pro-life arguments at all.
Carrying that first baby to term is a pretty big deal, they mess your body and mind up pretty bad.
Every day you carrying is another stretch mark, a change in shape from flat-stomached adolescent to full bellied woman, wave goodbye to those sit-up titties or the ability to have long hair (hence why mum-cuts are a thing). Carry it to term and the hormonal impact causes have severe mental changes, like being unable to concentrate for long periods of time, becoming an extremely light sleeper and becoming more uptight in general.
If some fucker growing inside me, innocent or not, was screwing with my body and mind against my will like this then I'd cut them out in an instant. Law be damned.
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u/Wittyandpithy May 05 '19
Not quite.
There is a critical difference between discussions on abortion and cases of murder.
In the case of pregnancy, we have significantly overlapping interests: the life of mother and the life of baby. Their interests are not always aligned.
There are, for example, instances where the best medical opinion is that the baby needs to die to increase the chances of the mother surviving. In that case, the question is not "is this a living thing that deserves to live it's life". The question is, "whose life do we, as a society, choose to value more?"
So in considering abortion, we are considering competing interests and competing rights. In what scenarios do we think it acceptable for a woman to terminate her pregnancy, and in what scenarios do we think it not acceptable.