It all boils down to how we look at it. The right to life or the right to autonomy.
If and when we consider a fetus to be equal to a person. Let's be real, the cause of the pregnancy or the motive for the abortion does not make an individual abortion moral or immoral. A women that's at 10 weeks who got pregnant because of a drunken night where they forgot to wear contraception is the same (morally speaking) as another women getting an abortion at 10 weeks because of rape and abuse.
Think about it. If you decided that life begins at contraception, then it doesn't matter how the pregnancy came about. If people decided to kill an infant, then it would not matter whether the child was previously conceived consensually or by rape.
If you decide a woman has the right to choose, the
n she has that right regardless if she is raped or not.
In reality, what made the US Supreme Court decide in Roe vs Wade was not an arbitrary definition of when life begins, but that women have bodily autonomy. Yes, both a man and a woman (at least in a cis gender case) are needed to make a baby, and generally the consequence is known; however, the woman inherently will suffer a higher burden than man will. A man can always, and often do, walk away. A women cannot, if abortion is illegal. Yes, she can give the baby up for adoption, but that is still 9 months to handle. A pregnancy can drastically alter a women's life. Imagine being in school trying to carry a baby to term. Some drop out and never get the chance to go back. A man does not have all those consequences and burden.
A common argument from people with this viewpoint is that no one can be forced to donate blood or organs even if it would result in saving someone's life. Presently even when your dead, no one can take your organs to save lives without your prior consent (I however think everyone should be an organ donor).
If we really believe in the right to autonomy, then we should permit abortion up and until birth. Although at certain point you could just induce labor, which would have a similar effect. Although there are many different ways to interpret this. Someone with this viewpoint could believe a first trimester abortion is permissible but not beyond that. The reasoning would be that a women surely knew she was pregnant during the first trimester, thus not getting an abortion then was "forfeiting" her bodily autonomy in respect of the baby (more on late trimester further down). The problem with that there are situations where women don't know they are pregnant until after the first trimester. It is far from being unheard of. Even if a women did know she was pregnant and chose not to get an abortion, then is she not free to change her mind?
Also, this viewpoint does allow greater flexibility. People that permit abortion are usually accepting the right to autonomy,
to some degree. Some people think that women who were raped should be permitted to have an abortion, because the rape was a violation of their autonomy. They never consented in the first place.
What it boils down to is when we decide a fetus is equal to an adult and do women have complete bodily autonomy? I do
not think these are mutually exclusive. A women always has bodily autonomy. But we can decide that a fetus's value changes throughout the pregnancy and slowly becomes equal to an adult. When the fetus is close than it is reasonable to say supersedes the women's bodily autonomy. What decides when the fetus/baby is too late for an abortion? Well, generally, so far we have us the threshold of pain. Some research illustrates that a fetus cannot experience pain until 20 weeks. However, a lot of research argues that a fetus doesn't experience pain until 30 weeks. So depending on what research we find most compelling we can put that as a date.
If you really think life begins at contraception, but then can you still believe it's the same thing as a person? From the picture below, how can you tell me the
left is not a person, but the
right is a person.
On a side note: I think the abortion debate has become to much of personal attacks. I addressed multiple viewpoints in this most, and I think they are
all logical. I may disagree with some people's premise's, but people's conclusion is logical. We can disagree with each other and still have a moral and intellectual argument without getting heated. If you don't understand what I am saying, you can read up on premises/conclusions or PM me and we can have a conversation.
was astonishing. I know it's not the same thing but sex education varies from one country to another so even though the women you know are very knowledgeable on the subject, it might not be the case everywhere.
