I'm pro-choice.

[jazzfish]

There's not much else that needs to be said, but why let that stop me.

The decision to terminate a pregnancy involves two people: the woman whose pregnancy it is, and Nobody Else.

Abortion clinic protesters and firebombers, and other such domestic terrorists acting in the name of saving unborn babies, would be better served attacking in vitro fertilization clinics. Of course, if they did that they wouldn't get to feel all superior by shaming the dirty sluts.

Not that the anti-choicers have any semblance of moral consistency in any case.

Really, the minute you make an exception "in cases of rape or incest" you've given up on the whole "it's a child not a choice" nonsense. Murder is murder; why are you punishing an unborn child for having a rapist for a father?

Ezra Klein is a smart guy. I'm happy to see him attack the "abortion is icky" thinking that pervades a great deal of pro-choice dialogue.

Happy anniversary, RvW. May you see many more.

Comments

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Later in the discussion on Ezra's page someone put it fairly well -- no, an abortion (particularly sufficiently early) doesn't kill an actual child, but it does end the potential of one. Another person posed the query, "when someone has a miscarriage do you expect her to just shrug and say 'better luck next time'?"

I have to run to work so I can't really write more.

[nixve.livejournal.com]

Well, no, no one should be so crass as to tell someone who has had a miscarriage that they should just shrug it off. But the difference between someone who had a miscarriage and someone getting an abortion is that the person who had the miscarriage wanted the potential child and the person getting the abortion doesn't want the potential child (at that time). Each should be dealt with, with the appropriate tact, respectful of the woman's choice of family planning.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Exactly. But not everyone's emotions and decisions are so clear. And in terms of why someone might be upset when a neice ends a pregnancy I was able to see a lot of possible reasons other than "ew, abortion's an awful horrible thing" that might inspire upset, several of which laughin explains below.

If you think I'm arguing against abortion being safe and legal you're incorrect. But at least in my own case I do prefer a prevented pregnancy to an ended one.

[jazzfish]

Some of this is me trying to sort it out in my own head, so should you feel inspired to write more, go for it.

I guess . . . I feel that not liking other people's abortions because it's ending a potential child is similar to the people who get upset when someone else's long-term relationship or marriage breaks up. They're not invested in it, and by expressing their discomfort at the situation they're making it difficult for the person/people who /are/ invested in it to make that decision rationally.

(None of this applies, of course, if someone actually having an abortion is feeling conflicted or upset. She is perfectly allowed to, and entitled to support and sympathy, because, again, I'm not the one going through it so I'm not entitled to say "You shouldn't be feeling like this.")

("You shouldn't have to feel like this" is a completely different thing and is intended to be blaming cultural pressures and not the woman in question.)