Stuck on Abortion

“The federal law, Roe v. Wade, that makes abortion legal in the us, must be protected.”

I notice two flaws in this sentence, rather than just the one. The one that is entirely inaccurate is the fact that this sentence refers to the supreme court case and decision of Roe v. Wade as a federal law. Roe v. Wade is a decision over a singular case, not as a law of the land.

But in my opinion...

We are not going to progress with this issue at any rate when people are throwing around terms and accusations that only push us further apart. This has obviously been a strong, ongoing concern, and there's a reason for that. There are many reasons why it is hard to speak for a voice that hasn't found itself yet. The core of this argument lies in the question of consciousness of the developing fetus. Both arguments for and against abortion make sense to certain extents, and on both sides there are flaws observed. Abortion is a very complex subject, and we can't pretend we know what's best for anyone, especially if they aren't developed yet. All I can say is that if you think a woman who gets pregnant should without question give birth, thus deeming her eligible to be a proper parent, then you should also deem her eligible to know what's best for her seed. However, there's the adoption option which is the perfect alternative for mothers who give birth, but who we don't see fit to parent the child. Unfortunately we can't effectively decide whether a mother is able to care for her child (with the exception of obvious and extreme cases of neglect and abuse) if we've already made the assumption that she is mature enough to handle nine months of confusion she will likely face because she was forced to incubate a ball of DNA into a living, breathing conscious being for nine months against her will.

Abortion might not have been anyone's burden if only we were all perfectly responsible and clearly understood the consequences of unsafe sex (which include more than just babies!). Unfortunately, you can still get pregnant even when you are told by your doctor that you are doing the right thing by using contraceptives. These doctors also tell you that there is still a very small risk of becoming pregnant even when properly using your chosen contraceptive. So this brings us to a whole new argument that needs to be considered before the one of abortion: what is the definition of being responsible in a situation like sex and is it possible for everyone to agree over one standard? Many believe that using birth control and condoms are responsible choices, but does that change when the girl ends up pregnant? I thought she was being responsible? Back in the day, being responsible was waiting until marriage, which was more of a religious belief than a moral no-brainer. Notice by looking at our own lives and the lives around us that abstinence isn't practiced and accepted by everyone, at least on the western side of things. Even religious people are making accommodations for the new society we live in and the opportunity to have sex without getting pregnant, which is a tempting opportunity to take when there aren't any consequences for doing so except maybe being smitten by God. If men have the right to have sex for the sake of pure pleasure, then women should be allowed the same privilege without being judged. Maybe things used to be different when having sex always meant getting pregnant, but now that medicine has advanced the circumstance of which we live and of what hinders us change entirely. If we have a pill that has been tested and proven to work, then that eliminates the worry, the problem. The issue of treating the body as a sacred temple that one should be considerate of is an issue only for anyone who believes that isolating the body is having the bodies best interest in mind because on the contrary, one could argue that sharing the body is equally as healthy, if not more. My point is that an issue of the mind is an issue of the mind and can rationalized many different ways that change depending on the lens you see life through. You cannot prove that abstinence is better for someone than using a contraceptive, and neither choice causes harm on a person if they decide this for themselves. In the end, when that man is exercising his sexual freedom, and the women are not, he is making love to women who are being punished for his own desires and that alone is unethical regardless of your sex. Being punished for someone else's freedom when that freedom always comes at another's expense, that is human perspective and not gendered perspective; it is only only a gendered consequence.

Both sexes in a possibly fatal hetero encounter are equally responsible for their participation in sex. They both are assumed to have an awareness of possibly extreme and life changing (life creating) repercussions, the only difference between the two is that the women's choice is taken away when it comes to a consequence of an action equally performed by both. If abortion is ever illegal, then there should be a law that gives the man the same amount of responsibility that the woman has. If she is forced to raise a child she is only half responsible for, then why doesn't the other half of the responsibility have to contribute to this important new life? If this is a subject for you that concerns the sanctity of life, then we should agree that our concern should also be on the future of the child; If we're going to go as far as to say that it is against our ethics (everyone really means religion) as a humanity to rob a life of its future before it is even aware it is alive, then we must be equally, if not more concerned with the quality of their life. We need both the father and the mother (and all other combinations of parents) to take responsibility for this delicate new life because that will be one example that will resonate forever within the child. And if the mother or father is considered a threat to the child's wellbeing and happiness, each case should be handled individually and negotiated in terms of circumstances. We should never try and categorize people in a way that silences their rights and freedoms by representing them through a vague idea rather than the actuality of who they really are. We can't look at things with this either/or dichotomy of judgement where everything is either something or it's something else rather than thinking on a human level and notice that they are both this and they are also that. Technology has obviously transformed our understanding of human relationships and interaction, and in many ways that is a tragedy, while in other ways it's a blessing. But the weight of one over the other is something to always be conscious and cautious of. In the matter of birth, life and innocence, we need to be very gentle and thoughtful rather than aggressive and closed minded.

Personally, I have always been on the fence about abortion, although I am definitely more present in the pro-choice argument. I can't fully commit myself to either side because I have not faced the truth of this situation. The problem with this issue is that it seems so black and white at first glance. Some say abortion is killing a baby, and others call it terminating a pregnancy. One sounds too extreme and the other too casual. One is talking as if there is a life we are dealing with, and another is talking about the issue as if theirs no one but the mother (and in best cases, the father too) involved in a decision like this.The bottom line is that you could only truly understand the weight of this ultimatum by standing directly in the woman's shoes. Most women won't understand it until they are placed into that situation themselves. I'm sorry, but men play second string to this issue because their freedom, rights and ownership of self is not at risk here, this is 100% a woman's issue. I don't discount that there are many instances where the father wants to be completely apart of the child's life but the mother doesn't allow, that's where men's rights come in. Having a baby really shouldn't be looked at as a chore or the end of the good days, it should and is seen as the beginning of the best days. It's just a huge responsibility that requires tolerance, patience, providence and complete commitment. It's knowing when you're ready that requires a lot of time and personal thought. In the end, women account for half of the population, meaning that they can collectively come to some sort of consensus or understanding of all rights and needs that women should have when going into a pregnancy. I might also consider that only men have made the decisions on when and at what expense is it okay to start a war and expect many of our own people as well as a mass of people we haven't got the chance to identify with to suffer the consequences. I'm certain that it was not a woman who decided that it was okay to kill someone with an electric chair because he saw that the punishment fit the crime, somehow justifying the hijack of nature's authority. This is not me badgering men, because I'm not. I just know that men have been given the privilege and responsibility of making very important political, historic and life changing decisions in the progression of our humanity and within the development of society and some have made very poor decisions on issues similar to abortion that regard human life.

Life is what let's us exist and experience outside forces. We are given senses as tools to understanding our existence and its relation to the existence of others. In order to really shape our own understanding of the issues we should be seriously discussing this as concerned, supportive people who care more about humanity than being right. We have to start supporting each other, because this capitalistic, greedy all-for-one mentality is really damaging our co-existence. It's hindering our relationship with nature. I'm sure if we weren't in such an oppressed-classist-racist-sexist-selfish-materialistic-unequal and negative society, we would probably all be at the same consensus on this issue. The examples that history set for us can come across in two very different ways. Learning about world wars, current wars, violence among large groups and individuals and all the "isms" that coexist in our country one might think that we are supposed to be such hostile power-hungry creatures. And then there are those who look at history not as an example of how we should be, but a lesson of what happens when we are inhumane.

The progression of the abortion dispute is easily synonymous with the definition of abortion.