Tim,
That is a fair question. As a person who believes in animal rights and human rights, I consider abortion a failure of reproductive control, and highly undesirable. I agree entirely with the position of the treatise posted by Poet authored by The Respect For Life Org.
However, with that said, I'm also a relativist and utilitarian and recognize that our society will always harm creatures incidentally and accidentally, but it's our duty to mitigate harm. So to your question I respond, "No, I think the standards we have now accommodate REASONABLE abortion as opposed to UNREASONABLE abortion." Thomas Aquinas felt that sentience began with quickening. He would have agreed with our modern standards.
We probably agree that there are too many abortions. You, however, deviate from this general position of agreement and appear to say all abortions (or at least most) are evil. I consider this like bug parts in strawberry jam. No bottle of strawberry jam could ever be sold if NO bug parts were allowed. That doesn't mean that we can sell jars of bug parts AS strawberry jam.
I don't think that most people having abortions are celebrating the fact. For person I know that had one, for both her and the would-be person, it was better that she aborted. We'll have to disagree upon that kind of case.
I could get behind an initiative to end most abortions through prevention, but since I don't think birth control measures are perfect or ever will be, there will always be some need for them. The earlier the better, IMO. I think that someone who defines a single fertilized egg as a "person with rights" would have problems with IUD's if they understood the mechanism. I don't and will never have a problem with IUDs.
Since it is not a matter that affects me directly, I'd be opposed to legislation that imposes MY standards on someone else, though. The current standard is a compromise, like allowing bug parts in strawberry jam. As a vegetarian I'm realistic that I can't completely be a vegetarian, so it is a goal. No abortions required would be a good goal. |
