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Hypocrisy

Abortion is not a pretty thing no matter how you look at it. Some people call it a tragedy, and it is. But in my view, it is also the symptom of a larger tragedy, a last resort that we would rather never come to, the unfortunate conclusion of a highly preventable train of events.

In a video I saw, a pastor was desperately trying to appeal to the emotions, to inspire a horror of abortion. And certainly there is much to dislike about it. But if we're really serious about about this issue, the conversation needs to change drastically.

Right now it is just a big tug of war that will never go anywhere. A woman's right to have an abortion is the law of the land. That right is the result of a hard-fought war and it is absolutely necessary for it to remain legal always because the alternative is far, far worse for individuals as well as society.

When it comes right down to it, human suffering and well-being are the ultimate arbiters of good and evil. This has always been the case and it always will be. (I'm talking about real, "capital letter" Good and Evil, here, not the fake religious variety, used by some people to control other people, that varies from church to church and from deity to deity.) And a society that impedes or prevents free access to abortion is Evil because of the unbelievable human suffering it creates. So let us totally and forever abandon this line of argument that says abortion should be outlawed, because that will only ever lead to Evil.

And let us also abandon this notion that "she chose to have sex and therefore she somehow 'deserves' what's coming to her." That leads to very many bad outcomes for all concerned.

If we're really, *seriously* committed to the idea that abortion is something to be minimized, then the conversation is going to have to change in the following ways:

(1) If you are personally committed to ensuring that a child you insist be born will never lack for food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, or any other necessity, then I will respect your opinion that the mother should not terminate her pregnancy. Otherwise, shut up.

(2) If you are personally committed to morally and financially supporting a multi-layered system where every child receives extensive education about the responsibility one incurs by bringing a new life into the world, frank instruction about sex and its consequences, birth control, and the importance of exchanging body fluids only in a relationship of love and trust, then I will respect your opinion that mothers should not terminate their pregnancies. Otherwise, shut up.

(3) If you are personally committed to the notion that no young person should ever end up having unprotected sex because of an inability to obtain birth control, then I will know you are serious about preventing abortions from occurring. Otherwise, your preaching about the evils of abortion is merely hypocrisy to me.

Unless you do all these things, you demonstrate that you care about fetuses, but not about the children and adults they will become, nor about the effects they will have on the society.

 

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