Thoughts on reproductive rights

[lunadelcorvo]

I was inspired to post this as a comment to virginia_fell's excellent post regarding reproductive rights and recent legislation, so I thought I would post it here as well. Please, read, and discuss!

Why abortion MUST remain legal, and why we, as a society, have NO legal precedent to outlaw or limit access to it or to any form of birth control.

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In this country, we do not mandate organ donation, we do not even mandate blood donation. Even in the case of a family member asked to donate life saving bone marrow, we do not, as a society, find it appropriate to make this compulsory, even when we can sit and talk to the person whose life hangs in the balance. Even after death, our wishes with regard to our own physical bodies determine whether our organs may or may not be used to save the lives of other human beings. And it is right that we should not. If the government tried to make these things mandatory under law, I am confident at least as many Christians and religious persons as non-religious would be having fits, and for once I would agree, though doubtless for different reasons.

Do these measures save lives? Of course. Is this a good thing? Naturally, no question. But mandatory, to be legislated and enforced by the law of the land. Absolutely not.

But to remove or restrict the right to abortion & birth control is to remove the control of one human over their body in order to sustain the life of another, something we clearly do not find appropriate. Even if you assume a fetus IS a human being from conception/implantation, if the law of the land cannot help itself to my kidneys when I am dead, nor to my blood or tissue while alive, in order to support the life of another human being, why is it that the law should be able to mandate the use of my body, against my wishes, for a period of nine months, to support the life of another human being? The answer is that it cannot, any more than it can compel organ, tissue or blood donation.

Is it better to avoid the necessity of abortion? Of course. (Better still not make sure that all women have full, complete and informed access to birth control, which will drastically remove the demand for abortion in the first place.) But to make full term carriage mandatory, to be legislated and enforced by the law of the land? Absolutely not.

Comments

[galadrielmoon.livejournal.com]

I love your icon! May I snag it? :)

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

Please, feel free! It's open source as far as I know.

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

I just can't even believe that, especially on such an over-populated planet, we're even needing to debate this issue.

People are CRAAAZY...!

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. I know this does not surprise you... ;)

[virginia-fell.livejournal.com]

I don't even remember how I found you on LJ, but I'm so glad I did. You're amazing.

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you did, too, and all I can say is if I am in the least amazing (which I don't claim in he least) that it takes one to know one. After all, it was your excellent post that inspired my own. *doffs hat*

[sorshawolf.livejournal.com]

The things that scare me more than the fact that my body wouldn't my own to choose for as I please, or that it could be illegal for me to choose not to have a baby; it's that women that get pregnant and it will kill them to carry said baby to term, victims of rape, child abuse, etc would be thrown back into the dark ages as far as what options are available to them. More women would die to unsterilized surgical conditions, infections caused by said conditions than having a safe procedure done within a clean facility.

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

You're absolutely correct - the real insanity here is that these are the very same people who oppose sex ed, and still try to cling to the long-disproven claim that 'abstinence works.'

[sorshawolf.livejournal.com]

Hiding a child from the big bad evils of sex are just going to make them want to know even more about it. In all honesty, I do not want to become a grandmother before I'm 50, that doesn't mean I'm going to hide my son and daughter from it. Especially not my daughter, she needs to know so she can know that it's ok to say no and what to do if the guy doesn't stop.

[sentimental13.livejournal.com]

Just because I personally wouldn't have an abortion doesn't mean we should outlaw it. How many mistakes do we have to make before we realize we can't legislate morality or mandate how personal decisions are made? You don't have to agree with something, but you have to allow for the possibility. Better to have sexual education and birth control available to all to prevent abortions than to outlaw all of these things and write death sentences for people who have dealt with traumatic experiences and will die either from illegal, unsafe abortions or will kill themselves rather than go through a full pregnancy. When will we learn?