Words of The Day

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Permalink Reply by Lynda Keen on February 7, 2012 at 2:18pm

I agree it should be unnecessary to use abortion as a form of birth control. Education about contraception methods could avoid this - if it were made available worldwide and were effective, which it currently isn't. Even young people in developed countries are appallingly ignorant about birth control, which is why we have so many unmarried teenage mothers in the US and Europe.

At present, in most of the world, many women do not have access to birth control or ignorant men such as husbands or male church leaders such as the Roman Catholic Pope forbid the use of contraception, not knowing or caring what damage they may be doing to women's bodies or lives. So abortion may be a woman's only option if she is likely to die in childbirth or if she already has more children than she can feed and clothe adequately. If abortion is made illegal, a woman in these circumstances will be able to resort only to backstreet abortion, which would only endanger her health and life further.

Fruits and vegetables are alive yet we pick them to eat, to make medicines and fabrics with. Cows, lambs, pigs, goats and silkworms are alive yet we kill them to eat or to make materials such as silk, leather or suede with. There isn't much that's alive that we don't kill. The argument that a foetus is alive so it shouldn't be killed by abortion only becomes logical if we stop eating anything or making any fabrics and medicines.

Some will dismiss this argument because they claim plants and animals don't have souls. But it's agreed that all people have souls. So if we're not going to abort foetuses because they have souls, then we mustn't kill anyone in wars, either. I find it strange that I've never heard an anti-abortionist or "pro-lifer" condemn the anti-life ideology of war. Far more people are killed in wars than by abortions so it would make far more sense to get our priorities right and abolish war before we abolish abortion.

Moreover, what of foetuses that are aborted because they are dead in the womb? Would it be better to let a woman carry the child for the full nine months and go through labour to produce a stillborn baby than to abort the dead foetus? I've actually seen a woman go through this and I don't think anyone who's seen that degree of suffering would agree that labour to produce a stillborn child is a more humane approach than an abortion much earlier in the pregnancy.

God created Man in His own image, yes, but Man never lives up fully to that status and Man often seriously distorts that image. I cannot seriously believe that God chooses to bring new life into the world as a result of rape. That is men's doing and without question men's doing against God's will. Why should an innocent girl or woman have to bear her rapist's child on top of what she has already suffered during the rape itself? If the rape is incestuous, the argument against making her suffer in this way is even stronger.

Apart from rape, men still resort to prostitutes for sexual satisfaction. Most prostitutes do not choose their profession; the vast majority are sold into and held in conditions of slavery. Sex trafficking happens in every country of the world, which again I am sure is not part of God's design for humanity but men going against God's will. Why should these women or girls have to suffer having clients' children? Perhaps it is thought that professional sex workers should know enough to use contraceptive devices. But if the prostitute is a child of 12 or 13? And/or in an underdeveloped society where contraception is unavailable? And/or held without access to money or shops? Let's talk about abolishing the sex trade before we talk about abolishing abortion.

Let's talk too about getting men to behave more as beings in God's image so that dilemmas about childbirth and abortion don't even need to happen.

I don't believe the day will ever come when Man will actually live in the true image of God that He made us. I don't believe the day will ever come when men will stop forbidding women to use contraceptives, stop killing people, stop raping women or girls or stop using prostitutes.

Given that men so often wield authority without taking responsibility for the consequences, I really think women must assume the right to take responsibility for their own lives and bodies. So abortion must remain legally available and must depend on a woman's right to choose.

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