Quote:
Originally Posted by thierry henry
I suppose I really just see the "abortion" issue as being intrinsically linked to the "sex" issue. Stating the obvious perhaps, but I guess what I'm saying is, for me it doesn't come down to figuring out at what point a baby becomes viable or human, or when it feels pain, or whatever. The point is just that I find it incredibly perverse that we as a society, in a very broad way (impacting on social policy and attitudes etc in a massive way), have gone with "have sex with whoever and abort the kid if you don't want it" over "if you have sex you might make a baby, so you probably shouldn't have sex unless you're prepared for the baby".
It's not actually that I think that in any particular case Person A should be forced not to abort her baby. It's incredibly difficult to weigh up the "badness" of "the birth of an unwanted human" Vs the "badness" of "a baby being killed, although it wasn't actually born yet, so was it actually killed? I dunno".
I mean, just recently a female friend of mine had an abortion. She is an unemployed single mother with 2 kids who is, herself, quite anti-abortion. It was clear to me that, with no partner, 2 young kids and no real income, a 3rd child would've been pretty much a disaster. Instinctively I understood her decision. It's not like I'm heartless or anything.
It just strikes me as so obvious that sex between two people who are not prepared for the possibility that they might create a human being should be vehemently discouraged. I mean, what could be more obvious? There seems a pretty massive chasm to me between the relative significance of getting laid and the relative significance of creating unwanted human life and then killing it off in the womb. I see it more as a public/social policy/educational issue where it just boggles my mind that notions like "sexual freedom" are privileged over "sex makes babies".
While I have no idea how to influence the masses, I do feel that in theory people should be smart enough to absorb the message that sex makes babies, babies are a big deal, and therefore it never makes sense to have sex unless you're prepared for said babies. Governments and relevant agencies etc should be pushing this message. It's just...did I use the word obvious yet?
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Your view is not controversial at all - many people have the same view.
Anyway, I disagree completely. Sex is fun (obvious again
), and can lead to procreation but doesn't have to. Frankly, to not have sex just because you don't want kids is kind of crazy to me. There are many options: if you use birth control and condoms (properly), your chance of conceiving are pretty much negligible. So I don't see why that should be discouraged. If the condom breaks or something, there are other things like the "morning after pill" that stop pregnancy - at least at my university, it is easily available 24/7 if you need to go and pick up up. I've gone there in the mornings myself, and it's not a big deal and it's really safe. In the end, adding it all up, there is very low chance of you becoming pregnant if you don't want to.
And for whatever reason, if all that still fails, I don't see a problem with abortion as you do but of course that's an argument that's already been discussed. I really don't mind abortion, whether the reason for it is it might be life threating or because she doesn't want to ruin her figure. I don't see why people should stop having sex just because they don't want children.