on abortion

TL;DR: ten reasons i support pro-choice, and most of them are consistent with just about all of the other traditional conservative values, oddly enough.  it's odd that in this particular case, conservatives gladly take rights away from the individual, and hand full domain over to big government.

 

these 10 ideas below are mine, and i believe they are completely consistent with one another.

why are they rarely--if ever--combined this way?:

1. life begins at conception. there is zero scientific evidence to the contrary.

2. gestation is a biological process that is inextricably linked to a woman's body. there is zero scientific evidence to the contrary.

therefore the progress of a pregnancy is the domain of the woman undergoing it. no one else's.  therefore, there is zero logical support for a government having greater domain over a woman's body, than the woman has.

continue...

3. the woman can choose to get advice, care, services, procedures from a qualified medical physician, or not.

4. if the woman, with or without medical advice, chooses to end the gestational process, with or without the advice of others, that is her business and no one else's.

5. if the man who biologically contributed to the pregnancy, is unmarried to the woman, then he has as much say in this as the woman wants him to have. if she chooses none, then it's none. period. full stop. shut up and go home.

6. however if the man who biologically contributed to the pregnancy, is unmarried to this woman, and SHE chooses to bring the gestation to term, deliver the baby, and raise it, then HE is 50% responsible for this child, and fully obligated to support that child, at a minimum, financially, until the child is 18 or 21, or whatever is required by local laws.

7. (dear unmarried men: if you don't think 2 through 6 are fair, then maybe next time put more consideration into who you choose to have sex with. there are many reasons why sex outside marriage is risky. this is one. you accepted the risk. you have no say in it going forward, but you are fully obligated to the consequences.)

8. if the man who biologically contributed to the pregnancy, is married to the woman, then he has exactly 49% say in how the gestation process continues, 51% of course being reserved to the woman in this situation, and her physician, if she so chooses.

9. (dear married men: #7 mostly applies to you too, by the way. sorry, be more careful next time.)

10. making abortion illegal does not get rid of abortion. it only results in dangerous abortions and deaths of women. and by "women" i mean poor women, because of course women with resources, money, or political influence, even those who love the baby Jesus, will ALWAYS be able to get safe abortions when it's convenient for them. yes... every bit of sociological research, in every country, throughout time, has shown this to be true. there is no historical evidence to the contrary.

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ok, reals? honest? let's fucking bottom line this bullshit, and expose the full picture to those who think it's their job to tell others what to do, and take some twisted comfort in only seeing HALF the problem:

A. abortion is surely a tragic thing. even women who choose this path know this to be true, and the decisions they make never go away, and they know this too.

B. practically no one believes abortion is a good thing. an aborted fetus is a potential human who never got to be a kid, grow up, learn, explore, fall in love, help others, build a life, nuture a family, grow old on their own terms, and reflect on memories of a life well lived...

C. but as free people, we are free to make decisions for ourselves that could haunt us, and could fill us with regret and guilt, *as much as* we have the right to make decisions for ourselves that we could look back and consider was the right thing to do. these two eventualities extend to all of our life's decisions, well beyond the abortion issue--all of our decisions.

BUT...

...at the end of the day, a woman's gestation, pregnancy, fetus, is hers. it. is. hers.

we as americans have been given the gift of freedom. many have labored and died to build and defend that freedom. we are free to live our lives, and when it comes to our bodies, men's or women's, we all have rights that should always supercede the government's.

if you're part of the "new right", and you'd like to claim some moral high ground to tell other people what you think they should do, here's my advice: shut the fuck up. no one asked you.