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Killing unborn babies
Just like divorces, abortions are horrible. Abortion is the act of killing an unborn human being. The procedures are ugly, and they have all kinds of undesirable emotional and physical consequences on the ex-mother. The existence of abortion changes our sexual behavior just as divorce does. But -- just as with divorce -- banning abortion is horrible as well.
Some abortions are medically compelling. Not too many people support killing a mother in order to birth a child. But even some non-medical abortions are compelling on social grounds. An easy (but still contentious) case is that of the rape victim. Should a woman who has not consented to sex be forced to raise a child?
To generalize the question: should any woman be compelled to raise a child for having sex? Another question: would society benefit if certain people aborted their pregnancies instead of having babies?
Then, the hard questions: to what extent does the legalization of abortion encourage abortion? To what extent does it encourage the poor sexual choices that lead to unwanted pregnancies? If abortion is criminalized, to what extent do parents who don't want children end up making the best of their circumstances and raising their children well? How much does society suffer if only those people who want children have them? Don't forget: smart successful people often avoid children, and dumb unsuccessful people often want children for the wrong reasons.
I don't think that either side in the abortion debate really wants to know the answers to these questions. The anti-life folks don't want to hear about the psychological changes abortion brings about (because then you TAKE AWAY CHOICE and make women SLAVES TO THEIR BODIES!) and the anti-choice folks are so convinced that the availability of potentially-dangerous things (divorces, abortions, drugs, pornography, homosexuality) encourages use of those things that they cannot afford to know the truth. Both sides just want to keep yelling at each other without listening to the truth in their opponent's words. I am so tired of it. There is a solution to this issue. But we have to listen to each other and do some serious thinking in order to find it.
My own solution is masturbation. If I stay in my closet and don't ever have any relationships, then I won't get pregnant and I won't have to deal with the situation. Unfortunately, my solution does not generalize, because people like sex too much. So what can we do?
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