Controversy: Abortion.

By TLS

A new, possibly recurring, possibly Wednesday type of post category. The intended primary focus of Controversy posts will be to identify the poles of an issue. Then, once that mess is done, we’ll try to calm things down a bit and most likely encourage readers to settle somewhere in between, and not add to the conflict. We’ll see how that goes…

Here comes the deep water!

Abortion.

What are the extremes here? Let’s get insane, like most of the people on the fringes of this issue.

Pro-Choice:

This one is quick and simple to describe but, disturbing in concept:

Baby:

…crowning head.

Mom (or anyone really):

“…on second thought maybe I don’t want this baby.”

The ‘Catcher’:

“Ok, not a problem. I’ll grab my knife and scramble the brain. We’ll clean up the mess after.”

All done.

Of course, that could have been described cleaner, or more clinically, or even more brutally. But descriptions weren’t the point just the situational concept, a last-second choice, with no thought or consideration.

Not a great option, clearly.

Pro-life:

This one takes a bit more to set the scene and we’ll mostly skip the theatrical play style here.

You have a nine-year-old daughter. She is raped by a long-lost unknown uncle and unbelievably gets pregnant. Through the miracles of modern medicine (which we don’t have yet, remember, this is a thought experiment) it is found, mere hours after the rape, that she is now pregnant. Additionally, it is determined the baby will grow to full-term but will die at birth, whether natural or Caesarian. The ‘mother’ will also die despite all the miracles of modern medicine. This is 100% certain.

However, modern medicine now has a wand that can be waved over the ‘mother.’ This wand will stop the single-cell fertilized egg before the first cell division takes place. The egg will then dissolve and be reabsorbed and the ‘mother’ (nine-year-old girl) will live with no other health consequences. Besides the rape of course.

Mom and dad of nine-year-old to healthcare providers: “We’re pro-life, no wand, that’s murder.” And so, in nine months, baby dies…along with nine-year-old daughter.

Both of these scenarios and any who would support them are ridiculously insane. These are both so far out on the ends that they shouldn’t even be considerations. Unfortunately, there probably are some. For the rest however, if you are not in one of those camps, that means you’re in between.

That means this is not a yes or no, black or white, or right or wrong subject. It’s a debatable issue, one with degrees, a spectrum. There is no all yes or all no. This is a matter of policy, consideration, and healthcare choices.

Should abortion be used as contraception? Of course not. Should abortion be outlawed? No, and this is why. Here comes my canned tagline: life is dirty, dangerous, messy, and often painful and complicated. There are damn few easy or simple choices. We must talk things out, come to agreements, and here’s a really dirty word: Compromise.

We’ll see how that goes…

Clip art

<a href="https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/curiosity-people-concept-illustration_29979597.htm#&position=1&from_view=search&track=ais&uuid=a6953794-c14e-457b-8aee-ad352b21841d">Image by storyset</a> on Freepik