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

[culturalnomad.livejournal.com]

"I have a strong opinion that if you do not have a uterus, you are not allowed to make decisions about what can and cannot be done with one."

I don't have the statistics handy. I wish I did, because I realise that what I have to say will be weaker without them, but I'm afraid if I wait until I have time to search for them I will have lost the opportune moment in this debate.

Although I often hear the argument you (prylliepwns) put forward, I have also read -- not just once, but numerous times -- that statistically by far the majority of "Pro-Life" people are women, while, conversely, the greatest numbers of supporters of the pro-abortion position (I will not dignify it by calling it "pro-choice") are men. Getting rid of the unborn child makes it easier for the father to avoid taking responsibility what has happened. Many women who have abortions do so because of the pressure from the boyfriend or husband who finds the idea of his wife or girlfriend having his child even more inconvenient to his prospects than the pregnancy is to hers.

[headnoises.livejournal.com]

Another statistic: the leading cause of death in pregnant women is the man who made her pregnant.

"Pro-life" sounds better and better.....

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Or from their family. Debbie was thrown out of her father's house when she was sixteen because she would not get an abortion.

[culturalnomad.livejournal.com]

I strongly suspect that many (perhaps most) abortions are carried out more because of pressure from someone else than because this is what the woman herself would choose if free from such pressure. But I think the statistic that most "pro-life" people are women, and most pro-abortion people are men is particularly significant here as a counter to prylliepwns's insistance that only someone with a uterus has a right to an opinion on this subject. Now if only I could track down the actual statistic and its source. . . ! I have heard it several times in various contexts.