Reply #48: I'm opposed to both, but I'm also a realist and know that women will [View All]

continue to have abortions, legally or illegally, and I also differentiate between laws that are universal and laws that are specific to a particular religion.

For example, every country in the world, whether officially religious, secular, or hostile to religion, has laws against murder, rape, theft, and host of other crimes that endanger the lives and well-being of the citizens. (The actual execution of these laws may differ, but the principles are recognized.)

On the other hand, laws against abortion are NOT universal. The practice is banned in most predominantly Catholic countries, but it's not considered a big deal in much of Asia.

I think you would see a huge outcry from all segments of the population if the government suddenly declared that all varieties of theft would henceforth be legal, so that if someone wanted to break into your house and take your valuables or stick a gun in your face and demand your wallet, nobody would do anything about it. Everyone would be upset--everyone from hardcore religionists to hardcore atheists. Laws against theft have broad-based support across all sectors of the population. The street kids I knew who had their Walkmans stolen out of their backpacks were as indignant about it as any wealthy homeowner who had lost a fortune in jewelry.

Now take the laws against abortion or the laws against drugs, or earlier, the laws against alcohol. These have been routinely flouted by a large segments of the population, and they are not illegal in all countries. Prohibition did nothing but create a profitable new business for organized crime in the United States, while prohibitions against alcohol in heavily Islamic countries are non-problematic because the majority of the population has never even tried it. When abortion was illegal (I was 23 years old in 1973), the affluent traveled first to Europe and then to other states for safe, legal abortions, while the non-affluent resorted to back alleys or worse yet, tried to do it themselves.

Opponents talk about the "harmful" effects on the woman, and yes, some women may have regrets. In Japan, where abortion is legal and not stigmatized, temples often have areas where the parents of dead children and aborted fetuses may pray to the bodhisattva Jizo Bosatsu fortheir souls. A friend of mine who had an abortion after becoming pregnant through rape has occasional regrets, since she in effect aborted the only pregnancy she would ever have, but she still speaks at pro-choice rallies.

In practical terms, we need to keep abortion safe and legal. Whatever ill effects there are fall to the woman alone and are between her and her conscience.

It is a completely different issue than killing possibly innocent people to show that killing people is wrong. That is a survival of the primitive "honor" system of justice, the system that produces blood feuds and senseless duels.