Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Abortion - was Missouri Young Republicans?

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Mike Miller wrote:
> On Thu, 8 Jul 2004, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:
> 
>> I see this issue as being as vital and important as the slavery issue 
>> 150 years ago (an issue in which the Republicans also took the "right" 
>> side against the Democrats).  Indeed it is interesting that such 
>> reformers as Susan B. Anthony, as well as fighting for the rights of 
>> women, were also strongly abolishonist, and pro-life, seeing all 
>> issues as equally involving the rights of people (women, black people, 
>> unborn babies respectively).
> 
> 
> Interesting.
> 

One of the best written pro-life web sites is http://www.feministsforlife.org/ - 
definitely worth exploring.

> 
> Here's what I think (and I don't expect you to agree):  We can allow 
> abortion before a fetus has reached the stage of viability (prior to 20 
> weeks, say) because it is still fully dependent on the mother and not an 
> independently-functioning being.  A woman should have the right to end 
> her pregnancy.  After 20 weeks, the fetus is viable and should not be 
> aborted unless it is seriously ill or deformed, or the life of the 
> mother is in jeopardy.  Women who want abortions will have to have them 
> early enough and if they wait too long, they will have to put their 
> babies up for adoption if they don't want them.  That seems reasonable 
> to me.  If we allow early deliveries of premature babies, we'll suffer a 
> huge burden of medical costs and infant illness.
> 

While I disagree, I do find your position reasonable - certainly you are 
recognising the concerns of the pro-life movement.

The reason I am against abortion is partly tied to personal experiences.  I 
remember as a teenager thinking about the abortion issue.  It seemed to me that 
it really came down to when the baby/fetus became alive.  Well actually that was 
only a partial answer, because how does one define life?  I did recall reading 
an Isaac Asimov article about how scientists define life (properties such as the 
ability to find food, procreate, etc, etc), but clearly this definition, which 
was designed to decide whether a virus as opposed to a germ was living, was not 
appropriate.  Really one was deciding "life" as in when a person truly becomes a 
person.  I basically decided that no-one at this time had a clue when personhood 
begins, and since at that time I was liberally inclined, I decided that the best 
way to handle it was to leave the decision to the mother.  But in the back of my 
mind was this doubt - what if we turn out to be wrong - isn't it worth outlawing 
abortion just in case true personhood starts at conception?

Years later I completely forgot the issue, and became a Christian.  A few months 
later, one night I just happened to read Psalm 139:

13 For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place.
    When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
    All the days ordained for me
    were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.

As I read these words, the strangest deepest maternal feelings stirred in my 
innermost parts.  I remembered a conversation I had had with my mother when she 
talked about how I was her flesh, and I had this strong sense of her love for 
me, and more so, a sense that God loved me even when I was in the womb.  I think 
that it also tied in with my experience of having my tonsils out when I was six 
years old, when I was totally dependent on those around me, and at times not 
conscious - it must be close to how the fetus feels - totally dependent on the 
mother, not properly aware of what is going on, yet with a deep sense of 
security.  Honestly I cannot properly verbalise these feelings, because they 
were so deep.

Suddenly the thought formed in my mind - wow, this means that abortion is wrong. 
  This thought came as a surprize as I had not been considering the issue at 
all.  Actually it was well times, because the very next day abortion became a 
big issue in my church (a British Member of Parliament wished to pass a law 
limiting further the age of the fetus to be aborted).  It was helpful for me, 
because it was the Holy Spirit rather than "groupthink" that caused me to be 
anti-abortion.

Honestly, I think that people need to see that the fetus is a life.  There are 
times when an abortion is appropriate - for example the life of the mother is in 
danger - but it should be recognized that a life is being taken, and it should 
be treated with the same seriousness as say the seperation of Siamese twins when 
one is certain to die.  Indeed all the time doctors have to make life and death 
decisions, and it would be better if they could make these decisions apart from 
any law, but right now many abortion providers are way too casual about the 
lives that they terminate.

Definitely I think that the Supreme Court in Row verus Wade was completely wrong 
when it recognised a women's right to choice and privacy over the rights of the 
fetus, and indeed their desire to decide this issue at a "constitutional" level 
rather than at the lawmakers level (i.e. I think that the Senate and Congress 
and States should be allowed to decide this instead of the Courts) means that 
even the compromise you suggested above would currently be declared 
unconstitutional - and indeed this is going on right now as the courts are 
overturning the partial birth abortion laws recently enacted.

I am told of a movie which shows an abortion, and through the ultrsound one can 
see a hook being placed in the womb to pull out the baby, and one sees the baby 
struggling to push the hook away.  These images stir in me the same feelings as 
that famous photograph of the naked vietnamese girl fleeing from her village 
being bombed, or a picture I saw on the history channel of a vietnamese child 
crying while her mother lay dead next to her.  For some reason the media spares 
us the images of abortion, and indeed those who show pictures of body parts of 
abortions are considered sensationalist.  Honestly I feel that in the centuries 
to come, we will be as ashamed and horrified of our past abortions as we are now 
ashamed of our use of slaves 150 years ago.  Those who tirelessly fight against 
abortion will perhaps be considered as we now consider John Brown - who in his 
time was seen as a violent extremist.  (Indeed I found it interesting that 
before the Civil War there were many who thought that slavery was wrong, but 
considered that it was more important to preserve the right of states to 
"choose" on this issue.  I found this from a biography of Abraham Lincoln.)

Stephen
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