(Untitled)

[kosherchick]

When it comes to issues of women's health, I'm afraid I don't understand the conservative argument. Articles like this one and this one frustrate me so much because of the resources being wasted on protecting fetuses, criminalizing women, and arguing about "G-d's will". I think I can see the argument that goes along the lines of "but you're

Comments

[relativity218]

Hah, I was actually thinking about this today.

The woman provides nutrients and protection for the growing fetus for approx. 9 months all the while risking her life during pregnancy and during the birth. Because, yes, you are risking your life even though we have many advances in the medical field relating to pregnancy, things can still go wrong and shit does happen.

Now, remind me again what the guy actually did? Oh yeah, he did not wear a condom. That's what he did to have a child.

I realize I'm being a bit harsh...but it is MY body. If a guy does not want the woman to have a choice in getting an abortion, then said guy should wear a damn condom OR just not have sex.

[relativity218]

Note: I'm probably more fired up about this because of the medication I have to take which would cause serious birth defects and pregnancy complications.

[anonymous]

If one views a fetus as fully a human being, how could preventing abortion *not* trump reproductive rights? Would you normally ever argue for the rights of one person over basic continuation of life of another person, particularly a completely helpless, innocent person? I imagine that's the main reason for such vehement opposition, not to mention that (as usual) it's extremely easy to have virtually no understanding of the experiences of those entirely unlike you, and also to dismiss their arguments out of hand because how could any of them ever justify murder? The conservative argument makes quite a lot of sense to me -- in fact, even though I don't agree with it, it makes sense to me more readily on a gut level than the liberal argument (which, of course, illuminates my total lack of first-hand experience with violations of reproductive rights, since otherwise I would have much more of a gut-level reaction to that as well). The negative consequences of abortion are immediate, visceral, and universally understood, but the negative

[othergoose]

Toby (and everyone), you might be interested to read Ta-Nehisi Coates's blog post "On Labor" from a couple months back.

He concludes:Like most people, I have deep problems with the termination of life--and that is what I believe abortion to be. Still a decade ago, I learned that those problems were abstract, and could not stand against something as tangible and imposing as death

[anonymous]

That's a very good point, I agree -- but (imagining things from the conservative view again) pregnancy only has a chance of accidental death, whereas abortion is intentional and will always result in death. So I doubt that they would be swayed.

- Toby