Re: Abortion

See this is what continues to bewilder me about the pro-choice
argument, so much that it has become cliched: it is somehow OK to
dispose of a living being who cannot defend him/herself; yet it is NOT
OK for same pro-choice proponents to kill murderers and rapists who
prey on the defenseless. I just don't get it.

With the exception of rare and damning circumstances, I am against
both abortion and the death penalty because I feel both engender
violence. The surest way to perpetuate violence in any society is to
create more violence. Besides (and I'm going off on a tangent here),
the death penalty for even the worst wastes of sperm and egg who rape
and murder children is somehow the easy way out compared to a lifetime
spent behind bars, living the guarded life of a prisoner,
contemplating the wrongs that s/he has committed.

In most cases, equally an easy way out is abortion. Abortion
proponents are so quick to form an either/or argument with no other
alternative: abort the baby or subject the child to a lifetime of
neglect and abandonment. As Daniel pointed out, why not adoption? I
can answer that one--it's too demanding, too emotionally taxing to
place a child you feel you cannot adequately care for into the arms of
a couple who wants desperately, and is ready to care for, a child they
couldn't have on their own. Adoption is the preferable route for all
involved, but not the most expedient one--abortion deprives not only a
potential life from reaching fruition; it also deprives a childless
couple of the potential of having a family.

As much as I feel it is morally repugnant for the pro-lifers to drag
religion into the mix, I also think it is repugnant for the pro-choice
crowd to hang the abortion argument onto the women's-rights bandwagon.
Where Operation Rescue and those right-wing whackos consider abortion
to be a religious issue, the lefties in the pro-choice movement
consider it to be a feminist issue. Both are erronous in my
opinion--abortion should first and foremost be a medical issue. It is
a clinical procedure that results in the loss of a potential life as
well as possible damage to the woman's body. It should be taken much,
much more seriously than a feminist-bandwagon or holy-roller prayer
meeting rallying point, but it unluckily is not.

The solution? Wear a condom, kiddies, and/or think really hard the
next time you engage in sex with someone with whom you aren't ready to
become a coparent. A little advance planning--and thinking--can go a
long way in helping to prevent the perceived "necessity" of abortion.