Monday, June 06, 2016

Thoughtful discussion of abortion

I quoted a Variety review of the anti-abortion play GIRLS IN TROUBLE a few days ago and the review opined it was a shame the play was hobbled by right-wing potshots against unrelated issues, for it might have provided a "thoughtful discussion of abortion."

But there's really not much to discuss about abortion. Here's how it breaks down:

I. You think abortion at any stage in the pregnancy kills a human being.

II. You think abortion doesn't kill a human being.

  • At least up to the point of viability.
  • Or a different point in the pregnancy.


And that's about it. Now of course plenty of people who oppose abortion don't support murder charges against those who have an abortion, which indicates that even some people who claim to think abortion is murder don't really think it is murder.

And there's the hypocrisy of GIRLS author Reynolds view on the issue of the taking of human life, since not only does he support the death penalty, he apparently thinks anybody who doesn't support the death penalty is an idiot.

I used to ask anti-abortion protesters at the women's clinic in Cherry Hill NJ if they were pacifists. And I don't recall a single one ever claiming to be a pacifist. They're all fine with taking a human life when it's beneficial to themselves in a war. An actual, born human, not an embryo.

Now in the case of most wars, the combatants' commanders don't want to wipe out the entire enemy population, they just want to be in charge. So if you consider preserving human life the most important thing of all, then you would rather surrender to the enemy than kill the enemy. But the devout anti-abortion activists would rather kill the enemy. Because preserving human life is not really their most important value, unless it comes to forcing women to bring unwanted pregnancies to term. Which of course is no trouble at all for the anti-abortion crowd, they won't have to deal with the complications associated with that. And instead, by harassing people and acting holy, the anti-abortion people believe they are buying themselves eternal life in heaven, which is a pretty good deal.

The only real issue, it appears to me, is determining at what point in the pregnancy it's OK to terminate. I doubt many people would agree that it's acceptable to terminate a pregnancy at eight and a half months. And in fact abortions rarely happen after the first trimester.

But the anti-abortion protesters, especially the Catholics are not only opposed to abortion at any point after the sperm fertilizes the ovum - which doesn't guarantee a baby since the ovum must also implant in the uterus after fertilization, so many women who thought they were just menstruating were in fact "miscarrying" a fertilized but unimplanted ovum, they are against all forms of birth control, except the bullshit "rhythm method."

They are against it enough to go to court about it. Which tells you that the Catholic church doesn't care about human life either - its motivation in opposing abortion is to try to hang onto its control over women's lives. And if they can't get women to obey by threats of hellfire and damnation they will do it through the US court system.

Which is why the Catholic Church needs to be opposed at all times. And especially needs to start paying taxes since it is nothing if not a political organization.