Recently, Roe v Wade, 1973, United States Supreme Court ruling, has been overturned. The landmark case legislated that every one of the 50 states in the US has to legalize abortions. Obviously, the overturning has sparked off a fury among the Pro-Choice side and several
Feminists and leftists have given their (angry) opinions on this. So, I decided, why not jump into the pool with my thoughts!
When does Life Begin?
Obviously, the most crucial question in the entire debate is to decide the morality around ending the life of an unborn child. But to start that debate we must address the fact that whether the fetus has value or not. For that, it is obvious that we must determine whether it is a life or not.
So, when does life begin exactly?
A Ph.D. student, from the University of Chicago, decided to ask that question too. His name was Steve Jacobs. To begin his research, he first surveyed 2899 American adults on who they believed should be the final authority to answer that question. Most of them chose to answer that academic biologists are the final authority to answer that.
Consequently, he decided to conduct a global survey with 5502 Academic Biologists. Surprise, surprise- no less than 95% of them answered, to simply put, that- ‘life begins at the moment of conception.’
And indeed, it does. Consider this- after the zygote is formed, it has a unique DNA, which is completely separate from the DNA of the parents. It starts dividing immediately and shows all possible signs of growth- which is the ultimate marker for life. If it is not a human, then what is it? And if it is alive, do we alive it to live? That is where the debate should begin to be honest.
Hijacked Feminism-Debunking the greatest myth around Pro-Choice vs Pro-Life
“Men are taking away women’s rights!”
How many times have we heard this statement from the Pro-Choice side? Somehow, the rhetoric that Pro-Lifers are all men trying to take away women’s rights has become quite popularized in the abortion rights movement. How true is that though?
The first feminists, like Betty Friedan, Alice Paul, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Stanton, were not just in disagreement with the fact that abortion is wrong, they also saw it as a sign of female oppression instead of empowerment. Standing against these ideals was the Sexual Revolution, epitomized by men like Hugh Hefner (founder of Playboy magazine), which popularized sexuality among women as a way to set them ‘free’. Hefner’s secretary Helen Brown had a huge role to play in this with her magazine Cosmopolitan (women’s version of Playboy that basically treated them as sex objects). If we look at history clearly, Pro-Life and Pro-Family feminism has always borne the torch of women’s rights. The sexual revolution and abortion movement have basically degraded the works of veteran feminists.
To further, extend the fire, that is abortion, 2 more men, Larry Lader and Bernard Nathanson advocated for abortion as a right. Later on, Alan Guttmacher also tried to recruit feminists into the movement. The entire era of the transition of feminism essentially controlled these few men, whom we can hold responsible for hijacking feminism into becoming as radical as it is today. The point of this story is to highlight the fact that Pro-Life has never been Anti-Women, it is in fact more Pro-Women than the Pro-Choice movement. Even today, most of the people who are Pro-Life tend to be women.
How Pro-Choice became Pro-abortion
I am not kidding when I say I am sometimes in love with the other side. There’s just so much to talk about when you see the euphemisms they practice.
When the demand for abortion as a ‘right’ was first started, the common phraseology around abortion was that it must be ‘Safe, Legal, and Rare’. But you know what they say, give them an inch and they will try and take a mile.
The rarity of abortion is actually amounting to over a million abortions every single year in countries where it’s legal. Abortion now is basically used as a method of birth control.
A good example to explain this would be to address, the common reaction of the other side to Crises Pregnancy Centers, Pregnancy Resource Centers, etc., and other such places in the US that help women during unexpected pregnancies. The Pro “Choice” side is often quick to complain that these centers don’t provide information on abortion to women and at the same time they also say that abortion must be used when women don’t have alternate choices. They conveniently forget that these centers are the alternate choices for women. Certain individuals have now started celebrating abortion as something to be happy about.
The Twitter movement- ‘Shout your Abortion’ that took place a while back is a great example to demonstrate the kind of insanity that postmodernism has bred.
Deciding on the value of human life, based on your own convenience is the nature of evil which is something the ‘Pro Abortion’ people do not understand.
Planned Parenthood and the Global Abortion Lobby
By now, it must have occurred to you as to why I have constantly referred to examples from the United States. There’s a reason for that. The United States of America happens to be the greatest exporter of abortion in the world. The Global Abortion Lobby, whose job is to persuade other countries to liberate their own abortion restrictions, is controlled and monopolized by none other than Planned Parenthood, one of the largest chains of reproductive care clinics in the states, and the largest abortion provider there. Planned Parenthood has obviously come into several controversies regarding its business. The abortion lobby and Planned Parenthood advance with their rhetoric on ‘sexual and reproductive health’ under the umbrella of ‘gender equality. Those terms, while seemingly to be innocuous on the face, are in reality a way to continue their business across the board and pursue policies that neither empower women nor protect their dignity, namely the promotion of abortion.
Abortion and its consequences
Now, this is important. Most abortions take place in the first trimester. A small minority of the cases of abortions take place in the third trimester. The physical risks in all
these trimesters tend to be the same, however, the intensity of risk varies. The physical risks involved are:
1) Uterine Perforations
2) Cervical Lacerations
3) Infection (in case certain body parts of the baby are left in the womb)
4) Internal Hemorrhaging
5) Maternal Death
6) Future Pregnancy Complications
Coming to the mental risks of abortion. A study from the British journal of psychiatry, which was a meta-analysis of 22 studies involving 900000 women from 6 countries concluded that women who go through abortions face:
1) 81% overall risk of mental health problems
2) 37% increased rate of depression
3) 34% increased risk of anxiety
4) 110% risk of alcohol abuse
5) 155% increase in suicidal tendencies
There’s a reason why I am mentioning these facts. We have this skewed understanding of the idea of abortion and the sanctity of human life. A lot of the time, even the Pro-Lifers, I admit, are ignorant enough to provide the same amount of sanctity to the mothers as we would to the children. There’s a lack of understanding in the abortion debate, that only are the babies being killed, but the mothers are being harmed in several ways beyond theoretical comprehension in both physical and mental ways. It isn’t that, there aren’t any risks involved with carrying the pregnancy full term. Obviously, there are. But the risks are further exemplified in the case of abortion. So, it is important to address that.
Solution: Woman’s Choice or...
Let’s get to some real stuff now. I have given a lot of thought to this entire subject over the last few months. It’s difficult to reach concrete conclusions so soon. The entire debate around abortion is in reality, deeply tied down to emotional persuasion from both sides. So, even though we try and bring facts to the table, the pathos (power of feelings) in this matter is quite strong and the reasons for that are pretty clear to us by now. The Pro-Choice side obviously uses the primary argument about the promotion of women’s rights to put forward their points. And I admit, that is a pretty strong ethical argument. Because after all why would I want to take away women’s rights.
The basic arguments from the Pro-Life side are boiled down to 2 main riders- firstly, every innocent human life deserves protection, and secondly, one must not evade the consequences of one’s own actions.
As I have mentioned above, when we talk about innocent human lives, we have to think about both the mother and child, before or after birth. Also, personal responsibility is an important concept that we have forgotten in modern society.
“It is in responsibility that most people find the meaning that sustains them through life. It’s not in happiness. It’s not in impulsive pleasure.” – Dr. Jordan B. Peterson (author, clinical psychologist)
So, now it’s the argument for women’s rights versus the argument for the right to life for an unborn baby. The sexual revolution, as I have explained above, hasn’t helped us to find morality or meaning in our actions and has further allowed people to be insolent with regard to their choices. We as a society made certain rules and institutions in order to benefit the people. The idea that sexual activity must be confined to a stable relationship such as marriage was one such rule that was favorable to people in terms of child development in a stable environment. Now, obviously, times and people change. Society also changes with time. So, it’s pragmatic that not all rules are followed the same way anymore. But that is in no way a reason to do away with the responsibilities that revolve around our actions because if that becomes a general norm, then we risk losing the strong and robust moral foundations of our society. The right to kill a child doesn’t exist, it has been invented.
The argument ‘My Body My Choice’ never made much sense to the Pro-Life movement. The reason for that is that, it’s not a woman’s body but a separate life. But it’s definitely her choice. Now, she can make a good choice or a bad one. However, to say that it’s someone’s fundamental right to abort is baseless.
“My rights end where another person’s rights are beginning.”- Lila Rose (founder of Live Action)
Till now, I haven’t made any profound conclusions on whether there should be heavy restrictions on abortion in India as of now, possibly because I do not feel that we are ready to take such steps right now. However, that is not to say, that we should allow unrestricted abortions either.
I have certain disagreements with several feminist narratives, particularly about the so-called “historical oppression of women” arguments (something I will take on in my future articles). But, there’s one thing that I can say quite clearly- abortion indeed is the ultimate manifestation of the oppression of women. For now, I can only conclude by saying- my name is Rudraksha and I am Pro-Life.
End.
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This article reflects the independent views of the writer, Rudraksha Ghosh.
While written very well, this article has a number of plotholes and I'll try to address them one by one.
Quite true, taking the example of the Roe V Wade case, this decision was taken by a panel of 9 judges out of which only 2 were women and both voted AGAINST the overturning. While you may argue the correctness of the privacy law, the whole world knows that this could only happen because the Republicans were able to have a majority in the SC.