Are you pro-life or pro-choice?

Question

I'm not sure where I stand on the matter. I have reasons for why I should be pro-life and reasons why I should be pro-choice.

Like in instances where a woman was raped or it will be fatal if she has a baby, I am so pro-choice.

But when I think about the girls that have 7 to 10 abortions just because she was being irresponsible, it really makes me feel so bad for the child that could have been and all because the mother didn't want to go through pregnancy where she had the option to give it up for adoption.

And before you say it... I know. It's her body her choice but I still feel bad anyways. This is going to affect her mental state tremendously in most cases as well as physically because as we know there are risks to possibly not being able to have kids in the future if you have an abortion.

And granted maybe she doesn't care about the risks or what it does to you mentally. Maybe she will even be fine with it afterwards.

So in conclusion, I am of two minds on this one.

nightdrot · Accepted Answer

The British statesman and political philosopher Edmund Burke wrote, "The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do as they please. We ought see what it will please them to do before we risk congratulations." Therein lay the problem with laws that permit abortion on demand.

A society that premises its law as "Choice"- to use the locution of abortion rights advocates - effectively leaves open the question of the value of human life. It becomes not a standing principle, but a subjective judgment to each individual. In such a society, human life becomes not an end in itself, but mere instrument. Life becomes not an object whose preservation is the highest standard, but rather a convenience to be maintained or not according to the satisfaction of another's will.

We shape our laws and then our laws shape us - see also the civil rights laws of the 1960s which have effected a revolution in race relations. (The idea that a black man and a white man cannot sit together at the same lunch counter is as alien to this generation as Neptune. Yet in 1965 it was pretty much the norm.)

Inherent then in the pro-choice argument is the idea that life has no value save that which each person chooses to attach to it. It denies society any authority to make a collective judgment on such questions. Therefore, in this view, the law may not afford protection to life except at some arbitrarily defined (and inherently subjective) point.

This then conduces to an assertion of power over rights. Life is maintained not as its own end, but according to the will of the person who, effectively, controls it because they can. An ethic of convenience is established and it is a slippery slope on which to build a culture and a legal edifice.

Such a society will not value life that sees life as not an end, but as a means to some other end. Indeed, that is why at about the same time as the culture began to shift on the abortion question we also saw a rise in child abuse, spousal abuse, divorce, out of wedlock births and other social pathologies. These were not unrelated phenomena.

Aristotle said that the first questions of politics are, "How ought we to live? What kind of a people do we wish to be?" The implicit answer of those who support abortion on demand is, in effect, that it is nobody's business. Predictable results follow. One cannot expect the society to absent itself from collective moral judgments on the value of life and then expect an ethical social order to result.

molonski2 · Accepted Answer

Its interesting when I was younger probably pro choice , but now all that has changed , with a couple of provisions , I'm very much pro life , mainly because of the outcomes I saw from abortions , and what it did to the women involved in later life , and believe me you never get over it - NEVER , nor do you ever forgive yourself , nor is it simply one persons choice , that's simply ludicrous.

Strangely enough , I hosted my elder sister over here to Thailand for a month , she is around 74 years old , while having a G&T on the balcony one night , she confessed she had had 2 abortions in her life , in the day she was extremely progressive , one abortion was pure economics while married , she said she had still never forgiven her then husband ( a professor academic ) , and that action assisted in the break up of her marriage , and the other was a one night hand ( she went to buy condoms , but chickened out , when it was a man at the pharmacy counter , it was different back then ) , I asked her the same question. Have you ever gotten over either? Answer = NO ,

This is not some simple convenient issue , " Rip it out and move on " , its simply not like that , my other friend suicided 25 years later after aborting twins.

LaFemmeFatale_1 · Accepted Answer

I would never get my future baby aborted, that being said I am pro choice. Other women should be free about what they want to do with their lives within the timeframe of the first few weeks of pregnancy when the fetus is only the bundle of few cells and it has no ability to feel the pain.

A life born will always be more precious for me than an unborn life.

I can imagine that it’s a very hard decision for any woman who goes through it, and I believe that’s something that stays with you forever.
Calling them killers and judging them for making this decision, is no less of a killing. As it might lead one to a suicide.

We all have one life and we have rights to decide what to do with our lives and bodies.

Women who want to have it done, will still have it done. It’s a tale as old as time.

Women always had abortions.

Plus, world is already overpopulated.

So, I’d rather people stop acting like saints. We know, you ain’t one and let people live the way they wish to live their poor life.

As for me, I am sure when I’ll get pregnant that will be by my choice and I am going to keep the baby. Because I want so.

I believe women must be able to make their own decision, what I think is right and wrong doesn’t constitute the universal truth others must follow!

Flower7 · Accepted Answer

I seem to share the same views as you. I’m pro-life except for rape or health risk to the mother.

BCRanger10 · Answer

I am pro-life. I am so because, first and foremost, I am a practicing Catholic. I therefore believe that man is made in the image of God and the Church has dogmatically defined abortion as an objective and grave moral evil.

With that in mind though, contrary to popular belief, abortion is not a religious issue, let alone just for Christians. Jews oppose abortion and so do Muslims and Hindus, but the ancient Greeks (pagans) did as well. And so do some atheists. Look up the organization Secular Pro-Life, which was started by Kelsey Hazzard, an atheist lawyer and also, a woman. True, the most vocal opponents of abortion may be Christians, but that does not make it a strictly religious issue.

I also oppose abortion because of what it is and what it does, and because of what the object of an abortion is, that being the termination of a pregnancy, a fetus. If a fetus can be "terminated" or "aborted", then the only implication is that it is in fact a life. It is not a "potential human life", because what else could it be? And if the claim is that life does not begin at conception, then those who so claim have to grapple with all sorts of ethical and metaphysical questions regarding when life begins, how they know, why then, why not before or after that specific point, who decides so, and a host of others. Then, of course, there are also the facts of fetal heartbeats, separate sets of DNA, and the sex of the child.

As it regards the question of rape, the first thing I would say is... well, to share some of my own family history. My great-grandmother ("Nona", we called her) was born in January 1916 and my paternal grandfather, her eldest, was born in December 1932; do the math. I don't know all the specifics (and to be fair, I've never really asked), but given Nona's age and Grandpa's father was a severely abusive alcoholic who, for the record, after leaving the family and later showing up at Nona's doorstep demanding a divorce so that he could marry someone else, I think there's good reason to believe that Nona was either raped or in some other way coerced. One way or another, I am not unsympathetic to difficult and painful situations that might influence a young woman to believe that her only way out is abortion. I simply look at my own family history and acknowledge that I might not be here.

As for threats to the life of the mother? The Church teaches that, in accordance with the principle of the double-effect, that certain surgical procedures which may result in the end of a pregnancy can and may be performed, but abortion, the direct and intentional killing of an unborn, may not.

Take, for example, this post by Abby Johnson, who, prior to her conversion to the Catholic Church, was the director of a Planned Parenthood office and herself had two abortions.

And here is one article on Catholic Answers (among many others that have been written there and elsewhere; this is just the first one that came up) about the aforementioned double effect principle.

Anonymous · Answer

I am mostly pro life, with a few exceptions, those being cases of rape, incest and threat to the health / life of the mother. And except for cases where the mother is at risk, abortion should only be allowed during the first trimester. Abortion is a necessary evil in those scenarios, but evil nonetheless.

Abortion has for decades been used as just another form of birth control. It is astounding to me that so many mothers are willing to kill their own child inside their womb.

I want to also address the "her body, her choice" fallacy. Study after study has shown that 95% of abortions are done for convenience, and nothing to do with the mother's body. The most common reasons are simply not wanting a child, not wanting it to get in the way of plans for education / career and not having a stable relationship with the baby's father. So what these woman really mean is "her life, her choice". But they can't say that because those reasons are the very same reasons why the father might also not want to become a parent, and that opens up a huge can of worms for women, and feminists in particular.

Here are a few little know facts about abortion.

One in four women has had an abortion.
Of the roughly 1 million abortions performed in the US every year, only 1.5% are due to rape or incest, and only 4% are due to health reasons.
According to the CDC, in NYC 35% of pregnancies end in abortion, and among African Americans more than half of pregnancies are aborted.
Per the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, it is considered murder if anyone intentionally does something that results in the death of a fetus... except the mother. In other words, abortion is a legal loophole that allows mothers to legally murder their own child.

Anonymous · Answer

If you’re raped just go use emergency contraception like the morning after pill. It’s widely available in pharmacies, it’s cheap to buy (far less expensive than an abortion) and it is given out with no questions asked.

I’m pro choice, but the way that people feel that they just have to kill babies is weird to me. Like it’s some sacrosanct right they are supposed to have, to murder a baby up to 8 months in the womb.

Most European nations only allow abortion up to 24 weeks—and not even all of them allow that much time for the bay to develop. But in America if you can’t kill your baby at 9 months your rights are being taken. Away. It’s madness.

Potteplante · Answer

I'm pro choice all the way.

Do I find it wrong that some women get multiple of abortions because they and their partner didn't use protection - absolutely, does that change the fact that it ain't my body, ain't my life and ain't my decision, absolutely not.

I prefer people getting abortion, over being forced to have a child - they don't want. Abortions can be traumatising but so can pregnancy and giving birth. - the latter rarely being talked about.

Hispanic-Cool-Guy · Answer

I have gone back and forth on this topic.

I have settled that abortion should only be available if the mom's health is at serious risk.

Secondly if disgusting incest takes place but the abortion must happen as soon as possible.

For cases of rape then the child can be put up for adoption or givin to the family of the rapist if the mom doesn't want the child.

strateguy632 · Answer

not OR, instead we can be BOTH only depending on time of fetus development. personnaly i like the french compromise for number of weeks, because they are a modern culture. until week _ we can be pro choice and after that time pro-life.

Mansearching · Answer

Everything is a choice. To have or not to have. Any govt entity or other people should stay out of a medical or personal decision a person has to make.

In other words people need to mind their own business.

Akam93 · Answer

I guess both. Unless its rape or incest or medical condition then it's fine. But just because you dont want the baby is not an option to get kill it. or cause its your ex boyfriend.

gothbxtch · Answer

pro choice, regardless of circumstances! “i just don’t want to give birth” is a perfectly good reason to abort.

kylee2437 · Answer

I am pro choice because I think it comes down to different believes and opinions , which means there should be options for both beliefs.

JoeMichael67 · Answer

Pro choice. However, I do find liberal women's obsession with abortions a little odd, and creepy.

Anonymous · Answer

I think you can be prolife morally but feel that legally it should be a choice.

bananapeels · Answer

Kill your baby, but don't ask someone else to do it

LimitedBenefits101 · Answer

Pro life imagine being pro choice, they love to murder babies

Bricealan · Answer

All in- Pro-choice

leahzrc · Answer

pro choice. accidents happen

WanderingLoveWizard · Answer

Pro choice, pro Trump, pro booty

Nikki1989 · Answer

100% Pro Choice.

LazerBean · Answer

Pro life

Paige90 · Answer

Pro-Life

Are you pro-life or pro-choice?

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