Colin Wood has had enough of rabid online arguments over a deeply personal issue.
One of the main problems with the abortion debate, and there are a few problems, is that the push to have access to abortions made easier or more difficult is so often drowned out by the extremists at both ends. You know the ones….they either want a total ban on the “murder of children” or they want any woman to have the “complete right to choose” regardless of how close to giving birth they might be.
The simplification of the debate on the nightly news, where it is boiled down to those in favour of abortion and those against, has a lot to do with why the debate itself is such a turnoff and why so few people are swayed to change their views.
I think it is time for the practical realities to be at the heart of the debate, with acknowledgement that the vast bulk of people hold views that are somewhere on the broad spectrum between “never” and “any time you like”.
I believe abortion should be a rare thing (the definition of rare will differ from person to person). Some abortions save lives, some save families. I don’t know where the exact line should be because I am not in the exact situation that each and every woman and/or family is in.
Is the line a moral one? Yes. Is my idea of the line different from yours? Probably. We haven’t discussed it.
I believe the notion that thousands of woman are having abortions because they are too lazy to use birth control or are sluts (I abhor that word and don’t use it) is a myth, plain and simple. There is no more an epidemic of women undergoing malicious abortions than there is a plague of malicious flag burning in Australia.
Do I wish there were fewer abortions? Sure. Do I think my position is such a moral absolute that I should decide the issue for all women and families? Absolutely not.
I think some of the anti-abortion campaigning, particularly in the US but replicated in some forms here on occasion, is desperately damaging to women who are often in incredibly vulnerable positions. I believe this does real harm. It frightens pregnant and vulnerable women away from safe medical care (not a euphemism for abortion, just a generic term) and in to the arms of criminals and amateurs.
Do I value life? I believe I do. A woman I know suffered through 11 miscarriages and mourned every one of them. I grieve for her pain.
I don’t, however, think the argument over abortion is a simple matter of being either in favour or against. For those against abortion absolutely, I respect the views they hold. But just like same sex marriage (let’s not have that debate today) they can choose to take no part in it.
I expect my view to be respected as well, even if it doesn’t sit comfortably with everyone. I think the balance of the laws we have for abortion are just about right, except for the part where the process is criminalised as some sort of overhanging dark threat to keep women in fear. The laws keep abortion quite rare (that word again), but accessible for those who need it for safety/medical reasons of some kind.
My point is that the issue is about choice, but not about mine. That means that it shouldn’t be about yours either until the point you are actually considering having an abortion. Until then it is none of your damn business.
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