The Abortion Discussion

Hello everyone, it has been a very long time since I have wrote anything, hopefully I can write a little more regularly now. I thought I would try to write something over the current hot topic that seems to always spring up from time to time, the topic of abortion. It has sprung up recently due to a leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that could overturn Roe v. Wade. I could probably write a bit about just that, but I think what’s more important is the overall abortion discussion that has picked up again because of all of this. Which in itself is a little silly since an overturn of Roe v. Wade would probably just mean this gets kicked down to the states and several of them already have laws on the books that would take effect once that happens.

So let’s go ahead and define the sides of this discussion and their motivations. This may come off a bit biased since I find myself much more on the “pro-life” side. The argument for those on the “pro-choice” side would be that abortion is a necessary part of women’s healthcare and that the state has no right to dictate what a woman can or can’t do with their bodies. They tend to appeal to those women who are victims of sexual assault, rape, a complicated birth or pregnancy that puts the lives of the child, the mother, or both at risk. And while abortion may be regrettable, it is a necessary choice that some women have to make due to their unfortunate circumstances.

Now let’s define the “pro-life” side of this argument. This side sees abortion as murder, they see this as the termination of an innocent life, no matter what unfortunate situation the mother may be in, this is still a life that is being purposely terminated. And the state has every right to interfere since at the very least the state is responsible for the preservation of life.

The biggest criticism for the “pro-choice” side of this discussion would be that they are not really considering the life of the baby. Their priority is the life of the mother and the life of the newborn doesn’t really seem to come into question, even if they lament on how hard an abortion is, they never seem to state why exactly that is. Many activists on this side of the argument will pull at the heartstrings and use the cases of women who have been through sexual assault, rape, or have birth complications, even though this is a very low percentage of all abortions. Most abortions take place due to socio-economic reasons.

The biggest criticism of the “pro-life” side is ironically the polar opposite of the criticism of the “pro-choice” side. They have a larger priority on the innocent life of the child and not so much on the mother. They are criticized for not giving viable alternatives to women seeking abortions. While I think they can certainly do a better job, their are resources out there if you are in need, such as pro-life pregnancy centers. In 2021, there are about 3,000 pregnancy centers, in 2019 when there were about 2,700 pregnancy centers, they served almost 2 million people with a total value of $266 million of total care given. The biggest issue with these pregnancy centers is that their aren’t enough of them around the country for everyone to get to and they aren’t as lucrative as places like Planned Parenthood. For example, Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups are reportedly spending $150 million on the midterm elections. Pro-life pregnancy centers will no doubt have a tough time competing with that.

I think it’s pretty obvious from all of this that you can see I’m fairly “pro-life”. As with most arguments, I think their are things that can be learned from the extremes of both sides. I think we can come closer to a middle ground on this debate. At the very least I think we should give more resources to pregnancy centers so that their are viable alternatives to abortion. I would hope everyone can agree that abortion as simply another form of birth control is morally wrong. If we are to allow abortion in our country, it should only be allowed under the grounds of sexual assault, rape, or the health of the mother if at all.

I could go on for awhile on this and in much more detail in both sides of this debate, but I wanted to make this short and go over my general ideas on this topic. I have barely touched on what the actual effect of Roe v. Wade being overturned would actually mean. But what do you think? Did I do an OK job hitting the main argument for each side? Do you think their is anywhere else for compromise in this general debate?