If abortion were illegal…
January 24, 2008
Try Clicking here if the video doesn’t play.
According to abortionno.org, There are approximately 46 million abortions worldwide each year. Nearly 20 million of them are performed in countries where it is illegal: so roughly 43% are illegal.
In the US, there are around 1.3 million abortions per year. If abortions were illegal, I think it is a reasonable estimate that between 1% to 10% of women would still have an abortion, which would be approximately 13,000 to 130,000 illegal abortions a year. So the question is….what should the penalty be for women that have illegal abortions?
I think the video above demonstrates the knee jerk reaction to criminalize behaviors that some people find immoral. Few even consider what making something illegal means.
Criminalizing abortion would create a black market for the service and make the procedure vastly more hazardous and life-threating for women. The horrors of coat-hanger abortions and unwanted children forced into volatile living environments would become far more commonplace.
In the end, I think even if someone disagrees with abortion morally, pragmatically he or she should not advocate its prohibition.
Now this is a way off topic because to be honest I could care less about the topic either way.
I kind of was upset at this video when they were talking to the old, somewhat senile lady. Then at the end the last ladies comment made me think of something. It seems to be selective in who they talk to and how it is edited. They couldn’t find one person who could answer the question? Not one person who was their had that of that before? The last lady says they should speak with the the organizer as he is better informed (my guess as there is no mention that he refused to talk to them). It reminded me of what some documentary/news people will do to entertain their viewer.
“In the end, I think even if someone disagrees with abortion morally, pragmatically he or she should not advocate its prohibition.”
As far as I know those that find it morally wrong view it as murder (and denying the child its right to life) because they view the fetus as a child (life). Those with this view would find not prohibiting it as wrong as having no prohibition on a mother who had someone come in and kill all her children because she couldn’t provide for them and her husband/boyfriend was/will abuse them.
Scott, that is a fair criticism. I probably shouldn’t say “Few even consider what making something illegal means”. Perhaps 90% of the people they interviewed knew exactly what the punishment should be; however, the reason this video interested me was because I have a personal feeling that a lot of people do not consider the consequences of criminalizing something. I feel this is the case with drug laws, smoking bans, 501 compliance, etc…So I don’t really care about a fair and balanced report. I just wanted to comment on people like this that do not consider some of the consequences of their proposals.
touche, Ben. I probably should phrase that differently…it seems a little overbearing. But so far as I know there are not 13,000 to 130,000 annual cases of mothers hiring someone to murder their children.
Really, the point I wanted to make was that criminalizing abortion will not get rid of it, and there will be unintended consequences. To me its the same logic for legalizing drugs: Even if you personally are morally opposed to drug usage, criminalizing it will not get rid of it, and there are unintended consequences.
So given the fact that there are 1.3 million annual abortions, I personally feel its more pragmatic to keep it legal and safe than to criminalize it and introduce unintended consequences.
Some animals eat some of their babies when they are born…in some animals it’s the other way around… In some way I can see abortion (killing off babies) as an evolutionary requirement for our society as a whole to work better, and improve (on top of what Tom mentioned in the blog.) It’s similar to not letting people vote when they don’t know how each candidate stands on an issue, because they will screw up the country. You may say, oh I don’t buy this “Utilitarianism” crap…and you are right, I agree, it’s horrible, I mean that is how they can justify slavery, torture, mass murder/holocaust, war…So as soon as people that are so “moral” about abortion, stop using this utilitarianism crap to justify sending missiles that kill innocent kids in middle east to protect “our freedom,” torture people, kill, etc. I’ll consider being all “pro life.” But for some reason I don’t see it happening any time soon…
Many interesting points there Simon…It is certainly true that some animals kill their offspring which is absolutely an evolved behavior for some survival advantage. It only reminds me that we are also evolved animals susceptible to very similar primitive instincts.
It may be somewhat difficult for a man to comprehend, but the psychology of a woman that has an abortion must be very complex. Clearly, she must not view it as “murder”. To her, it is her body and the incredible responsibility of raising a child is unimaginable. The choice to have an abortion is absolutely utilitarian to the woman, but not to society as a whole. She wants to have an abortion to avoid pregnancy and the completely altered lifestyle she would have to begin.
From an evolutionary standpoint, before modern technology, having a child before a woman is ready is a massive burden which can reduce both her and the child’s chances of survival. She would require much more food and the intense changes in her body make it more difficult to obtain food and shelter. If she does not have adequate protection and food, clearly a woman is not going to want to bring a child into the world.
Therefore, I think there is an evolutionary psychology behind abortion which would explain why so many women and men have no moral qualms with it. Even demonstrated in the video, it seems most people would not consider an abortion as immoral as murdering a stranger….
For me I don’t really care what the utility of abortion could be nor the evolutionary possibilities. I see it as the “unborn” have the right to their life. This to me succeeds any claim of the mother or anyone else.
This video says alot about the people that protest abortions. Say what you want to about one video representing all protesters.. I don’t care. These people think they talk to god so anybody that doesn’t have god’s phone number doesn’t have a valid opinion. This was a great topic to illustrate your point tom. Many people protest to justify themselves with god not with the issues.