Abortion is back in the headlines here in Australia because in Queensland a woman has today gone on trial for procuring an abortion. This is the first such prosecution in the state’s history, even though the law banning abortion was first introduced in 1899.
There were several pro choice rallies held around the country in support of Teagan and her boyfriend, although I’m disappointed to say they weren’t well attended. This might just be because people feel protests don’t achieve much. Despite this, the majority of Australians do support a woman’s right to choose – see here and here and here.
Technically a court ruling overturned the law in 1986, although this case appears to completely ignore that legal precedent. The Queensland government, with its first female premier, has been remarkably cowardly on the issue, refusing to repeal the 1899 law and instead wallpapering over the cracks with a few changes to legislation that seemingly make it OK to take RU486. But the case has had a huge chilling effect on the ability of women to obtain an abortion in Queensland and, if they are found guilty, will no doubt cause further erosion of a woman’s right to seek a termination.
I don’t want to go into too many details about this case as it’s already been covered elsewhere. The two SMH opinion pieces Abortion law stuck in the 19th Century and Abortion trial not just about women do an excellent job of summing up the case.
What’s inspired me to blog about this case, apart from the obvious feminist interest in the whole disaster, are the comments on those opinion pieces. Specifically, the way the pro-life/pro-choice arguments keep boiling down to the idea of “Is it life?”
I am pro choice, of course. I completely support the right of women to make choices about their reproductive health and about whether they want to have children. My body, my choice. Raising a child is a huge responsibility and if someone isn’t ready to be a parent, they shouldn’t have to be.
I honestly think that “Every child a wanted child” is the fundamental reason why we should support legal abortion. Kids deserve to be loved and raised properly. Given the plight of so many unloved and unwanted kids in this world, I think it’s better that women be able to choose whether they want to be a mother or not. If you are not up to doing the job, you shouldn’t be forced to do it.
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The anti-abortionists (“pro-life”) are all about the rights of the child, and only the child. They don’t seem to take into account what happens after the birth of that baby; all they see is a life, a potential person who has a right to live.
Here’s the thing: I do see their point. But it doesn’t mean that I agree with them.
All the arguing about “when life begins” is essentially ridiculous. An egg is alive. A sperm is alive. When they join, they create a new cell. And that cell has the potential to go on and become a new conscious human being. But there is never a moment when that entity isn’t alive so it’s a moot point. And I am not going to deny that a zygote or embryo or fetus is a human.
Nonetheless, it is a bundle of cells that requires the womb of the mother in order to grow.
The question then becomes: when is a child viable? Or, perhaps more importantly, when do we say that a baby is a baby and not just a bundle of cells?
And this is where the various arguments get a little bogged down because you can probably argue all day about spinal cord growth and brain development and nerve endings and so on. The anti-abortionists say that the moment of conception is most important because that’s when the new individual begins. The pro choice argument is a little more vague on this topic. It seems the closer you get to birth, the more viable the child becomes and the less acceptable an abortion is.
I’m just going to come out and say where I stand: I understand that abortion involves killing a bundle of cells/embryo/fetus/baby/potential person. And I don’t have a problem with that – even when it involves late term abortions of disabled fetuses.
My reasons are this. It comes down to conflicting rights; the rights of the mother versus the rights of the potential child. And for me a grown, conscious woman’s life takes precedence.
An embryo/fetus/baby is not conscious. Even a newborn child is not fully conscious. For me, consciousness is the most important thing. Obviously I’m not advocating infanticide but it really does come down to that fact. Consciousness makes us who we are. We don’t have a soul, all we have is a brain and when the brain is not fully developed, there is no consciousness.
Anti-abortionists are arguing that an unconscious fetus is exactly the same as a grown adult and that it has a right to life. But that life is solely dependent on the mother, on her body, her time, energy, attention and care. They demand that the mother make physical, emotional, mental and financial sacrifices -for years – against her will for the benefit of the unborn child. Put simply, it’s not a fair transaction.
And not only is it unfair for the mother, it’s also unfair to the child. Better that the kid be wanted and properly looked after than a source of ongoing regret, spite and anger
I think I could take the “right to life” arguments more seriously if babies were instantly independent the moment they’re born. But they’re not and that’s exactly the point. A child is 20 years of your life. That’s a massive undertaking and it should always be done willingly and happily.
And it seems that most right wing “pro-lifers” are also against welfare for single mothers, sex education and contraception. They want the babies to be born and then don’t give a damn what happens afterwards. They also seem to hold the view that women who have abortions are all callous sluts (see The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion for examples of this attitude – where pro-lifers have abortions and are back picketing the clinic the next day).
But having an abortion is never an easy or simple choice. I’m sure that most women give it serious thought before they undergo a termination. And while the pro-life movement likes to make up statistics about “abortion grief”, the fact is that most women who have abortions feel relieved afterwards. They usually go on to have a family a little later, when they’re ready (although some don’t, and that’s fine too.) There are, of course, women who have finished having children and who choose to terminate a late-in-life accident. It’s not only young women who have abortions.
The reason it’s called “pro choice” is because it’s about trusting women to make the right choice. About understanding that unwanted pregnancy is a very stressful and difficult situation to be in, a situation that no woman takes lightly. It has to be about individuals making decisions according to their own needs and circumstances, independent of any religious authority that wants to dictate “morality” to them.
Nobody wants to have an abortion. It is ultimately a very sad thing. But it’s better to terminate an unwanted pregnancy and start again than to continue on and have an unwanted child.
On a personal note, I have never had an abortion. I think it’s mostly a matter of luck, although I have been fairly meticulous in my pill taking, simply due to my strong desire not to have children. My husband and I said from the beginning that we would terminate any accidents; thankfully I’ve never been confronted with the actual decision. I do know that it would have been hard, in spite of the beliefs I’ve just outlined. But I think that if I discovered I was pregnant tomorrow, I would be OK with having a termination.
I do have plenty of female friends who have had abortions. All of them say they don’t regret it. Some went on, built up their lives, relationships and careers and then had much-loved children. Others remain happily child free. None of them wanted to be in that situation but accidents happen, as they always will. They made a choice that was right for them at the time and I would never say that it was a wrong choice. And it makes me angry that others would judge them for it.
I suspect that this long blog post hasn’t covered any new ground. Still, it’s been useful for me to write it and to articulate exactly where I stand on this issue.
In looking for an image to accompany this post, I typed “abortion” into Google images. I then scrolled through the many gory and confroting images that anti-abortionists use to argue against abortion. And while I found the pictures horrific, I don’t resile from my position. Yes, termination is an awful thing. But the rights of the mother are greater than the rights of the unwanted, unborn, unconscious zygote/embryo/fetus/baby.
Every child a wanted child.
It’s the 21st century and it’s time the law reflected the modern-day ethical choices of women – and acknowledged reality.
Abortion should be legal.
Pic came from here.
Note:
I also recommend Leslie Cannold’s excellent book The Abortion Myth for a more thorough exploration of the issue.
“The women I interviewed, no matter what side of the abortion fence they were on,” writes Leslie Cannold in The Abortion Myth, “were clear that the fetus is alive, and abortion kills it. None of them, however, believed these facts proved that abortion was wrong.” Cannold criticizes pro-choice feminists for denying the fetus in an effort to bring the woman back into focus as the locus of pregnancy and the agent of decision-making. In her view, women are moral persons for whom the decision to abort derives less from a sense of rights or privacy and more from a broader evaluation of what the “right” thing to do is. This evaluation speaks to their attitudes towards pregnancy and motherhood, and the real difference between pro- and anti-choice women is their level of trust that other women will “act morally.””
I pretty much agree with your take on it. Good article.