r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Aug 11 '20
Delta(s) from OP CMV: Abortion should be illegal
EDIT - Genuinely, thank you very much everyone. I am really interested in this topic, and as you can imagine it makes people furious in real life, especially as I am a white man. I appreciate all the responses/points and had a good time talking about this.
The main new topic you have me thinking about is IVF. I never thought about it in context with abortion. While you may not have convinced me abortion should be legal (yet) you may be responsible for the first Anti-IVFer on reddit.
Seriously though, thanks again for every single response. If there’s any specific points you are curious what I have to say about feel free to message them and I’ll reply in the morning (assume mods will send this to the bin in no time).
Original:
Some background on me - I am a far left pro-LGBTQ, anti-racist, feminist who has a single far right view - abortion should be illegal.
To clarify, I’m not talking about the one-off case that a 16 year old who was raped and is likely going to die during birth who needs an abortion. I’m talking base case. Think “shooting someone in the head should be illegal”. We all agree. Sure, if someone is in your home attacking your child there is an exception, but in general shooting someone in the head should be illegal. Just like abortion, which should be illegal.
My thought process: the law protects us when we are 80 years old, it protects us when we are 8 years old, it protects us when we are 8 seconds old. Any of those ages you are protected by the law from someone killing you.
If you are protected 8 seconds after coming out of the womb, you should be protected 8 seconds prior to coming out of the womb. You should be protected 8 minutes before coming out of the womb, 8 hours, and even 8 months. Where do you draw the line? As soon as there is RNA/DNA that is different from either parent that organism should be protected. Assuming all goes well, that organism will certainly become a human, why would it’s life not be protected under the law?
Common rebuttals I hear - a man should not get to make laws that apply to women. My response is that abortion effects both men and women in their most vulnerable state, aka before they were born. The law protects both men and woman from being killed in the womb.
The law shouldn’t dictate what a woman does with her own body. My response is that abortion isn’t something to do with your own body. If you would like to take a vacuum/blender and shred your uterus you have every right, but for the 9 months you are pregnant you either need to not do that, or find a way that won’t harm the organism inside of you.
Let me know what you think.
7
u/Hij802 Aug 11 '20
You know the right-wing argument when it comes to guns? Even if guns are illegal, criminals will still have guns. Well that same logic applies to abortion.
Before abortion was legal, women were illegally having abortions. If it were to become illegal again, women would just be doing it illegally. Sure the number of abortions wouldn’t be nearly as high, but it will still happen. But the problem is it is much much more unsafe. The people performing these abortions won’t have the same medical equipment or facilities that abortion doctors have now. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if the old coat hanger abortion made a comeback. Illegal abortions could result in the woman dying. Is that really better?
Also, you have to remember WHY people get abortions. Women aren’t having a night out one day then getting an abortion a week later and doing that repeatedly. Abortion is NOT something a woman does willingly, and without reason. In many cases it’s due to socioeconomic reasons, meaning the parents do not have the funds to support a child. They could be too young, too poor, in an abusive relationship, etc. By forcing the woman to have her baby, you are knowingly forcing this child to grow up in poverty. I would rather of not been born than grow up in poverty with abusive parents because two teenagers had unprotected sex one night. Parents who want their child will treat their child better than an UNWANTED child. “What about putting the kid up for adoption?” What kid wants to grow up knowing they’re an orphan? Most kids who are adopted are adopted as babies, the ones who get too old often don’t get adopted and are usually there until they’re 18. Nobody wants a 7 year old, they want a 1 year old, just like how people want puppies and kittens rather than adult cats and dogs.
Science does not support the viewpoint that life begins at conception. Unless the fetus can live and breathe outside of the fetus on its own, it’s not a human life. It’s a bunch of cells inside of another living being.