Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1999 07:54:35 -0400 From: Unka Bart <mendicant-AT-buddhist.com> Subject: Re: This Whole Abortion Debate... My good friends Erik and catkawin examine the ironies of the abortion issue: >> I do find it funny that this whole abortion debate pops up regularly and >> 99.9 % of the people discussing it are males who'll never have to face the >> decision. > >I also find it funny that the topic gets narrowed down to "young girls" or >"young wymyn" having abortions which does not reflect realities, and at >the same time indicates that abortions with young persons are due to some >uneducatedness re contraception, or an unwillingness to use >contraceptives. > >What I don't find funny, e.g., is that the suggestions to have unplanned >children aborted do not reflect that it may be harder to have a baby with >you for nine months and then it disappears for good. As true as it is that >abortion will never be a cure-all, neither is adoption. prompting Yer Kindly Ol' Unka Bart to chime in with his own two-cents worth: The whole thing revolves around the idea of "cherished beliefs." There is simply no way to argue effectively with anyone on any subject that involves that person's "Cherished beliefs!" The entire situation is tragic. I understand the position of the right-to-life crowd, after all, if you believe that humyn life is sacred, and that life begins at conception; then you are in a place where there can be no middle ground, abortion equates to murder, and must be stopped (by whatever means are necessary). For the right-to-life people, these are all "cherished beliefs." The problem is that these people, of whom I am *not* one, are unable to see and understand that not every one holds these same "cherished beliefs." This, by the bye, is the problem with "True-Believers" of all stripes; the inability to see that other people are entitled to different sets of "cherished beliefs." Some good people do not believe that "life" begins at conception. Some good people do not believe that *all* humyn life is "sacred." Some good people (and some others, as well - such as Yer Kindly Ol' Unka Bart, to name one) believe that this is a subject that is a private matter, subject only to the decision of the pregnant womyn, and not a legitimate subject for criticism by any other person, however well-intentioned that person might be. My only belief regarding a womyn who finds herself pregnant, is that there are no easy decisions for *her* to make, and there is no one else qualified or entitled to make *any* of them, other than the womyn herself. Oh yes, there is one more belief on that subject that I'll share. There is no one else qualified and entitled to comment upon the womyn's decision, other than the womyn herself. Yeah, that ought to do it... Yer Kindly Ol' Unka Bart
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