I am extremely pro-choice. Based on a lot of the posts in this thread, I can tell I'm going to take some heat for this, but here's what I think:
Lots of women are going to get abortions whether or not abortions are legal. If they're legal, the abortion can be done safely. If they're done illegally, the mother is at serious risk of infection and internal bleeding, which could very easily lead to her own death. By making abortion illegal, you're putting people's lives in danger.
The life of a tiny organism with no self-awareness and probably no consciousness is not comparable in value to that of a fully developed human. I would rather kill that tiny organism than force a mother and child into a life of hardship, where the mother is unable to pursue her goals and is also unable to provide for her child, and the child does not have the resources they need to succeed. I would much rather the mother abort, lay the foundation for her life so she can be successful, then have another child she can take care of.
You bring up Down Syndrome and autism. This is the most controversial opinion I am going to express. I think we need to differentiate mental conditions by severity, or at least I do. When I have a child, I want that child to have goals and ambitions they can achieve. I want them to be able to succeed. If it looks like I'm going to have a kid with a mental condition that will present some challenges, that's fine. I will be committed to that child, and do everything I can to help them succeed. With this I am thinking of Asperger's Syndrome, high functioning autism, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, epilepsy, and so on. I won't care that they have the mental disorder, I will care for them all the same.
However, to be completely honest, if I find out that I'm about to have a child with a really debilitating condition like Down Syndrome, then abortion is an option. Taking care of a child with that kind of condition is a lifelong commitment, and can severely limit both the child and the parents. Frankly, right now I'm not in a place in my life where I could deal with that, and I wouldn't want to limit any partner I have with that either. I don't think I'll be in a place to take care of such a child any time soon, either. Don't get me wrong, I think extremely highly of parents committed to children with Down Syndrome and other, more profound mental disabilities. I have sort of a hero worship for a musician who basically just travels around with his son who has Down Syndrome. But for me to take care of such a kid, I'll need to have some financial/professional security, and know that I'm already moving in the right direction in life.
And for really severe mental disabilities, where the child can't function at all, like microcephaly, I will abort. Because if the child can't function at all cognitively, then they have no quality of life.
I don't say any of this lightly, but this is a decision with serious consequences. And honestly, I don't think anyone who aborts makes the decision lightly.
Many people will bring up adoption, saying if you can't take care of the child, then don't abort because you can always put them up for adoption. This isn't a good response. Orphanages are already overburdened and underfunded. Yes, some children are adopted into loving families. But others stay in the system until they age out. This can have really harsh consequences for kids. That feeling of being unloved is hard for children. In orphans, depression, drug abuse, and suicide rates are exceptionally high. Few graduate high school, and many wind up homeless or in prison. Orphan/adoption services need serious reform, and subjugating a child to the hardships of that system seems unconscionable.
30 Nov 2016, 7:24 pm
