I don't want to be against abortion. That is true. I have only encountered "pro-life" arguments all emanating from one source, i.e. religious belief. I have a basic gripe with any and all codified religious doctrine, and I bridle at the prospect of being told what's what on the basis of something that I cannot permissibly draw into question. I get all hot under the collar when asked to believe something because, when I follow the thread back to its start, the reason of final resort is someone saying "The following is true because we say it is".
Using my common sense, such as it is, a blanket proscription on abortion strikes me as a bad thing. Since I am not doctrinally compelled to toe a doctrinal line that personhood begins at conception, and since that idea seems silly to me, I can countenance first-trimester abortions without confusing them with murder.
I also see wisdom in giving the prospective mother the choice over whether to carry the embryo or not. The women who so choose usually have compelling reasons, since abortion is not an easy or casual decision to make. But using doctrine to force a woman to carry, even raise the child that would ultimately result from the unintended pregnancy seems not very human to me. It fails the common-sense test: Is suffering being minimized? It is as totalitarian as the practice used in China where a woman's choice is zeroed from the other side, by a physician jamming a syringe full of formaldehyde into the crown of a baby just being born.
Ew. |
