1) What does abortion mean?
A medical operation that ends a pregnancy at an early stage. This mostly happens in the trimester (the first three months).
2) What does pro-choice mean?
Supporting the belief that a pregnant woman should have the freedom to go for an abortion if they do not want to have a baby. Even if one wouldn’t have an abortion yourself, one supports someone who wants to.
3) What does pro-life mean?
Opposing the belief that a pregnant woman should have the freedom to go for an abortion if they do not want to have a baby.
4) Why is it that the father doesn’t get any say in this?
The fundamental right of body autonomy clearly states that an individual’s body belongs only to them and no one can force someone to let others use their body against their wishes. The fetus uses the mother’s body and organs to survive, and so, the right to let anyone use their body belongs only to them. The woman has the right to decide what she can and can’t do with her body.
Don’t you think a woman should have the right to decide whether the fetus remains in her body or not? Therefore, a pregnant woman should have the right to abort the fetus.
5) Isn’t it murder to kill someone?
Science says that a fetus of three months (most abortions are performed during this time) do not have brain development, which is responsible for conscienceness, which is the most important part of being alive. The fetus doesn’t know that it’s alive, it doesn’t feel pain, it can’t survive on its own etc. A baby needs external help from an adult or grown up for its survival — for instance to feed them, clean them, give them regular shots etc.
A baby outside the womb does not depend upon their mother’s body or organs for their survival. And therefore, the moment the baby can safely exist outside the womb, i.e. in six months, it should get all the human rights. But they aren’t required before that. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge to rights of a fully developed human being. A fetus with no conscience is not a developed human being and so, does not require human rights.
I know some people who oppose abortion might think that now that I’m more in favour of the woman and don’t think men deserve to have any say in the rights of the fetus inside someone else’s womb. But just think that if you are pro-life, if you really care about someone’s life, shouldn’t it be that of the mother? Don’t they deserve the right to live as well? Also, if the pro-life group actually cares about the embryos being killed, then FYI, IVF clinics destroy more than 1.7 million embryos yearly, and this does not include the ones that are donated to science.
According to the latest statistics, as of 2018, 862,320 abortions were had been performed in the US at an abortion rate of 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years. So, if all lives really mattered, then pro-lifers would have had a much bigger issue with the destruction of test-tube embryos, as that destroys more than double the amount of embryos as compared to abortions.
Watch this video about abortion if you have the time:
The single most important factor for women’s advancement in society is our ability to control our fertility. Without that, we are trapped by the realities of pregnancy, childbirth and childrearing; rather than a privilege and a gift, these aspects of being a female become an unbearable burden. Attempts to limit women’s reproductive freedom are no more than a gambit to keep women “in their place” — a gambit in the guise of religious moralism.
True, the guise can run deep and many so-called “pro-lifers” genuinely believe that killing a fetus is equivalent to killing a human being. But such religious feelings have no place in the public policies of a country that claims to separate the church from the state.
No one wants to plan an abortion. And the best way to prevent abortions is to prevent unwanted pregnancies: through sex education, improved distribution of birth control and empowerment of women to shape their lives.