After a friend printed a misguided defence of abortion (from her comments thread)

[fpb]

Rephrase your premise as follows:
I don't agree with abortions... but if they're going to happen (which they will), they need to be safe and legal.
I don't agree with rape... but if they're going to happen (which they will), they need to be safe and legal.
I don't agree with burglary... but if they're going to happen (which they will), they need to be safe and legal.
I don't agree with assault... but if they're going to happen (which they will), they need to be safe and legal.
I don't agree with embezzlement... but if they're going to happen (which they will), they need to be safe and legal.
I don't agree with fraud... but if they're going to happen (which they will), they need to be safe and legal.
I don't agree with forced marriage... but if they're going to happen (which they will), they need to be safe and legal.

etc., etc., etc.....

Excuse me, if something is wrong, why the Hell should it be safe and legal, only because "it's going to happen"? Crime is always "going to happen". That is the point of having laws. We do not have laws against something which, though wrong, is never going to happen (e.g. there is no law against stealing someone's soul). The point of having a law against it is to state that it is a disapproved and forbidden activity, and that, if you are caught (which, alas, will not always be the case), you will be punished. This trash about "it's going to happen anyway" is simply something that abortionists repeat ad nauseam, on the principle that if we hear a statement often enough we're going to take it for granted.

Comments

[cheyinka]

"I want this distasteful surgery to become so unnecessary that it is exceptionally rare, and I want it to be done safely, legally, and well when it is necessary" sounds a lot better than "Yeah, it's a person, but my rights come first," which I have encountered, in so many words. I'm not sure it is better, though; those making the latter argument will almost certainly be unwilling to listen to someone who thinks abortion is at best manslaughter ("we didn't know it was a human life we were ending, but that ignorance was not excusable"), but at least they're arguing on the same grounds (whether or not the unborn human has the same rights as its mother, or any rights), while the "safe/legal/rare" proponents see it as "you mean you don't want it to be safe?" and that argument doesn't intersect with its opposing argument at all.