"Because it is "groping in the dark" as you put it, and because there are so many opinions on this and we can't all agree, why not leave the choice to the persons involved? Why do strangers get to decide the course of my life simply because I have sex that results in a pregnancy?"
This is a fabulous question that, to be honest, I'm not su…
"Because it is "groping in the dark" as you put it, and because there are so many opinions on this and we can't all agree, why not leave the choice to the persons involved? Why do strangers get to decide the course of my life simply because I have sex that results in a pregnancy?"
This is a fabulous question that, to be honest, I'm not sure I have an answer for. I'm struggling to figure out if this is the same as the many other laws that decide the course of our lives, but I feel like it is and it isn't.
The closest comparison I can think is age of consent laws. Nobody knows when a child becomes an adult. There's no clear before and after. In fact, for some, it's undoubtedly *after* they're legal and adult. But we treat children differently under the law in ways that both advantage them and restrict them. We don't allow them to decide for themselves, even though it's their life that's affected.
Women don't need to be protected in the same way as children, of course. But wouldn't you agree that there's a point where the baby does? Where it's a real human being who will bleed if you prick it and laugh if you tickle it and die if you poison it. And that this point comes *before* it's out of the mother's stomach.
Abortion laws are about that very healthy instinct society has to protect children. That instinct should have as little impact on women as possible. But the facts of biology mean it's very difficult for it to have none at all.
"Because it is "groping in the dark" as you put it, and because there are so many opinions on this and we can't all agree, why not leave the choice to the persons involved? Why do strangers get to decide the course of my life simply because I have sex that results in a pregnancy?"
This is a fabulous question that, to be honest, I'm not sure I have an answer for. I'm struggling to figure out if this is the same as the many other laws that decide the course of our lives, but I feel like it is and it isn't.
The closest comparison I can think is age of consent laws. Nobody knows when a child becomes an adult. There's no clear before and after. In fact, for some, it's undoubtedly *after* they're legal and adult. But we treat children differently under the law in ways that both advantage them and restrict them. We don't allow them to decide for themselves, even though it's their life that's affected.
Women don't need to be protected in the same way as children, of course. But wouldn't you agree that there's a point where the baby does? Where it's a real human being who will bleed if you prick it and laugh if you tickle it and die if you poison it. And that this point comes *before* it's out of the mother's stomach.
Abortion laws are about that very healthy instinct society has to protect children. That instinct should have as little impact on women as possible. But the facts of biology mean it's very difficult for it to have none at all.