[clue-talk] abolition

[David L. Willson]

Then you're back on the hook over the abortion issue, Mr. Rudder.  :-)

Here's some things I've been thinking about:

The primary misconception (no pun intended) that leads us to believe abortion is OK, is
that we think of ourselves as having an inalienable right to have sex without
procreating.  On the face of it, as as 21st century American, born and bred to the
notion that sex is mostly fun, it seems to make a sort of sense.  Then I remember that
sex is fun, and that we crave sex, as a natural part of our survival instincts.  The
intent of our bodies in sex is to procreate.   That is sex's primary function.  I must
accept a risk that sex will fulfill it's mission by creating a new person from or in me.
 If I'm unable or unwilling to accept that risk, I must abstain.  Conversely, if I'm
unwilling to abstain, I must accept the risk.

Somehow or other, we feel unfairly put upon when we conceive, as if we're being
punished, and that's simply not true.  Sex has just functioned normally, as it has since
we began.  On the other hand, our intent, through risk acceptance, was to take the
chance of conception.  It is inappropriate to punish or kill the new human for a risk I
accepted.  I, through my action, created this person and placed him where he is. 
Abortion can be no more justified, in the case of consensual sex, than shooting someone
for trespassing after I put him in my house.  I dare say that if I put someone in my
house, or body, I owe him a reasonable chance to get out safely, at least.  The
biological contract between parent and child goes further, I think, but in any case,
that new person is my child, and it is perverse for humans to kill their own young.

On the other hand, if a child is placed in my body against my will, I have no obligation
to let it stay.  If I choose to evict it, and it dies as a result, that death should be
the moral and legal responsibility of the person that negligently put it there.  If I
choose not to evict it, and I incur any discomfort or expense, those damages are the
responsibility of the person that put the child in me against my will.

I never said that I was trying to get to 0 abortions.  I don't think it can be done,
just like we can't get to 0 hit and run accidents.  It will happen from time to time
that someone will be unable or unwilling to face the normal consequences of their
actions and do the right thing.  I want us, as a nation, to stop paying for abortion, to
stop assuming that abortion is a normal, healthy part of life, and finally, to abolish
it as a legally sanctioned means of getting rid of an unwanted human child, because it
is deadly for the child, and degrading for all of us.  I'm pushing and voting for us to
do the same thing that the Irish have, recognize the humanity of the unborn, grant legal
rights, and protect those rights as faithfully as we protect the mother's rights.  I
continue to believe that this is achievable, even in America.

I continue to believe that this is the right fight to fight, because of the stories I've
read from former pro-choice people turned pro-life, like Jane Roe and Bernard Nathanson,
and because of the accounts of pro-life people that I've read, which were written by
pro-choice authors, and because of the large number of defenses of both standpoints that
I've read, and because of the large number of attacks of both standpoints that I've
read, and because of my own personal experience, both of abortion and of raising
children under difficult circumstances, and of having been born under difficult
circumstances before we began sanctioning abortion.

-- David
abolish abortion