Well, I told myself that I would not be afraid to delve into the issues that were a bit more inflammatory than others, despite the potential hate mail/death threats/ condemnations to an eternity in Hell I may receive as a result. What do I think about abortion? Well, I'm a manly man of the male gender, so I may not be the most experienced individual to make such a judgment.
Still, I'll give it a shot.
Ever since abortion became widely accessible by women, several factions (many of them religious) have protested its very existence, fighting for the rights of the unborn fetus that would be terminated. The central issue that has been addressed by both sides of the debate is whether or not terminating a fetus at a certain stage of development is in fact murder or, more specifically, whether the terminated fetus has yet become a separate entity, rather than an extension of the mother.
My belief on this matter is that I have absolutely no clue whatsoever, and I have neither the spiritual or scientific background to make even an educated guess. What I do know, however, is that the chances of either side of the debate conclusively proving that its belief/hypothesis is the right one is... well, there is no real chance. Much like the question of whether or not there is a God, both sides can say their point of view, with no real evidence to prove or disprove either claim.
So, instead, let's turn our attention to the following; if abortion were terminated, what on Earth would we do with all the babies?
Claiming that if we remove abortion people will stop having unwanted pregnancies is similar to saying that removing a fair trial from our system of law will stop criminal activity; people might be more careful, sure, but these unwanted pregnancies are not exactly planned out. So banning abortion will result in a surge of babies; this is assuming, of course, that it isn't just a surge of desperate women trying to perform their own abortions with coat hangers...
Disturbing thought, eh?
Here are a couple of potential options as to what would likely be done with the babies...
Law Requiring that the Birth Parents Care for the Child
The problem with this solution is clear; in many cases, the birth mother would be unable to financially support a child, or may even have mental or emotional issues that would render them unfit parents. Even those who do have the financial and mental stability to care for a child, but who simply do not want to, would ensure the offspring a potentially wretched childhood. Imagine if, for your entire life, your parents just considered you an intruder, an extremely unwelcome mouth to feed?
The Children Being Shipped off to Foster Homes and Orphanages
This would probably be the best solution, but it's hardly without its faults; to support the surge of children, orphanages would require additional funding, and many more foster parents would need to be found... would the organizations that locate such foster families be forced to lower their standards to meet the "quota?"
To sum it up, this is my belief; if we are to remove abortion, we must first make absolutely certain we can deal with the flood of new life that comes as a result. Simply forbidding abortion and walking away in self-satisfaction as the children we have "saved" swiftly become forgotten is not an option.
Rather than just fighting for the right of a fetus to exist, we should also fight for the right of the child to live.
