"It's my choice!"
On Abortion
Some will say that you can’t support freedom and simultaneously be anti-abortion. We live in a culture obsessed with control, and it claims: “People should be free to do whatever they want! As long as it doesn’t hurt anybody, it doesn’t matter!”
Now, as many abortion-opposers would object, it does hurt somebody – but we will address that point later. First, we should remark that just because certain persons have the capacity to choose, does not mean that all choices are equal, or that there is no wrong choice, or that there are no choices you cannot make. Your choices aren't virtuous just because you chose them freely.
Having a choice is empowering, but not every choice made is an empowered choice. A person might choose to get drunk every night – this is clearly not an empowered choice, but a disempowered choice. Anything built on a disempowered choice will simply be an extension of disempowerment. A person might choose to kidnap and murder someone else. Should we praise them simply because they made a choice? Just because they acted freely, should we congratulate them for their bravery? Surely not! There’s a limit to any privilege. Do enough things wrong, and you’ll have freedoms taken away from you. Freedom and rights are accommodated by responsibility. Your right to choose does not trump your responsibility to consider the wellbeing of your fellow man. An abortion-opposer might go further and add that your right to choose does not trump your responsibility to be a good mother to the child in your womb.
I refrain from using the label "pro-choice" in this discussion because a person who is "pro-life" can certainly still be in favour of choice. They may present four choices - abstinence, contraception, motherhood, and adoption. Abortion, however, is simply not an option. Regarding reproduction, a truly empowered choice would be for women to have good discernment and solid boundaries regarding who they have sex with in the first place! Take control over your body by controlling your sexual desires. You cannot mitigate the outcomes of your decisions by oppressing the person inside of you.
We would also be amiss to not also mention the pressure felt by many women to have abortions. Is it truly a free decision if a woman is pressured to abort? A study published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons writes:
58.3% of the women reported aborting to make others happy, 73.8% disagreed that their decision to abort was entirely free from even subtle pressure from others to abort, 28.4% aborted out of fear of losing their partner if they did not abort, 49.2% reported believing the fetus was a human being at the time of the abortion, 66% said they knew in their hearts that they were making a mistake when they underwent the abortion, 67.5% revealed that the abortion decision was one of the hardest decisions of their lives, and 33.2% felt emotionally connected to the fetus before the abortion.
“These findings are alarming,” says Population Research Institute President Steven Mosher. “They suggest that a substantial number of women in America today who supposedly ‘choose’ abortion are actually being pressured into it by their husbands, boyfriends, or family members.”
If freedom and choice were primary concerns, it would be just as easy, and just as socially acceptable, for women to choose to keep the baby as it is for women to kill it. If choice was the goal, we would not be seeing abortion-supporters attack and vandalise crisis pregnancy centres. Those who claim to be "pro-choice" would be calling for the funding of organisations and pregnancy centres which support women in such situations, instead of exclusively funding abortion facilities and enacting laws which only make it easier for vulnerable women to be pressured into aborting their child. However, for many on the pro-abortion side, abstinence, contraception, motherhood, and adoption are not options to be taken seriously[1] - effectively leaving only one acceptable alternative: abortion. That doesn't sound very "pro-choice" to me.
[1] It has become the norm for people in the west to have had premarital sex and/or hookups. Some will label virgins as "inexperienced," and view this negatively. There is a growing sentiment that people wont stop having sex, and that abstinence is a ridiculous suggestion.
Some women avoid contraception because of its negative side-effects. There is also the claim that poorer women have less access to contraception.
Motherhood is often criticised by those who are pro-abortion. Thanks to feminist efforts, women are far more career-driven than they have been in the past. Women only desire to become mothers when they decide that they are "ready" - anything earlier than this is perceived as a hindrance or barrier.
Adoption is often discounted due to misinformation about the adoption process and/or an unwillingness to carry the pregnancy to term. (See The child will have a terrible life!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQKZsfy_YdM&ab_channel=PintsWithAquinas Special thanks to this source featuring Stephanie Gray: Highly recommend!
https://www.pregnancyproblemhouse.com/ Pregnancy Problem House
https://www.instagram.com/p/CyjPdDSxZFb/?img_index=1 Britney Spears felt pressured to have an abortion.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CxvPiA8rzKa/?img_index=6 Women have been murdered for refusing to abort.
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/02/ce-corner#:~:text=When%20it%20comes%20to%20real,sort%20of%20hook%2Dup%20experience.
• There is an additional, modern sense in which women are (often) the gateway to sex and so must bear responsibility for their actions.
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