Originally posted by pause4thought
I'm certain you mean 'that the majority can agree on'.
No, that's not what I meant, and I apologize for causing you to waste your time and effort debating the "what is a majority" point due to my lack
of clarity. I meant everyone, quite literally. Obviously America is a little too big for everyone to sit down and have a "town meeting" but I
believe that, in a free society no law should be imposed unless everyone agrees to it. I think if you snagged 100 random people and said "we're
going to form a new society and we need to decide what our laws should be," you could achieve 100% consensus on murder, thievery, robbery, etc. A few
people might want to argue some points, but you could get everyone to agree that there should be a law against murder. You will NOT, in my opinion, be
able to get everyone to agree that there should be a law against abortion; therefore it should not be a matter of law.
A significant proportion of the adult population in the US does not believe it is wrong to protect the unborn child in law, so by that logic
abortion should be illegal.
Sorry, please check the polls and surveys. The majority of Americans are "pro-choice."
So yes, in response to your comment, I do believe the issue revolves around whether the unborn child is an individual. Anatomically,
genetically, psychologically.
I simply disagree. Yes, the fetus moves, feels pain, etc. So does every animal; that does not make it a thinking, self-aware, sentient human. Yes, if
it survives it will become that, but the fetus and even the newborn baby are not yet thinking, sentient humans.
Can we at least end with some measure of mutual understanding and respect?
Of course I respect your opinion and your desire to protect what you see as children. However, if I were pregnant and had decided after weighing all
the facts and options that the best choice for me was abortion, I would resent your desire to prevent me from doing it. The consequences of having the
child will be mine, not yours, and I do not willingly grant you the right to take away my decision to do what I think is best. It is not your child,
and should not be your decision.
I spent 14 years of my life living with the resentment, fury and hatred of a woman who was forced to have me, and I would not wish that fate on
anyone. At 50 I am still not fully healed and doubt that I ever will be the same person I could have been had my own mother not hated and abused me. I
was only 7 when she first started telling me all the things she tried to get rid of me, and how desperately she wished that she had succeeded. Before
long, I, too, wished that she had succeeded.
After every home remedy and attempt at aborting me failed, she was finally driven to suicide and nearly succeeded at that, after which she was kept
under supervision until I was born. I think perhaps you are not taking that into consideration; that some women will be so desperate not to have the
child that they will suicide, and the life of the mother will be lost as well as the baby.