My Beliefs on Abortion

I guess I'll just go ahead and say it. I'm pro-abortion. Now, I know what you're thinking. Well, he really means he's pro-choice, but for some reason is refusing to use the commonly accepted term for it. But you'd be wrong. I don't just believe a woman/couple should have the right to choose - I believe that if you are considering have an abortion, then you should do it.

This world is filled with people having children for completely the wrong reasons. In fact, there is only one acceptable reason, in my opinion, to have children - because you are prepared, willing, and happy to spend the next ~20 years of your life raising those children to be functional adult human beings. But people have children because their friends are, because they think the child will love them unconditionally, to get attention, to try and fix their marriage, or maybe even just because it's what's expected of them. Most of them are not prepared for the biggest responsibility they will ever have in their lives - the ability to shape the entire life of another person. If they do a bad job, their children will likely end up with major problems as adults. People need to understand that they really do control the fate of their children - parents of good children are almost never lucky. They did their jobs well.

On the other hand, children of bad parents almost never become happy adults, and they almost never make good parents when they later have children themselves. It's a vicious cycle that has no easy end once it has been started, and that has tremendous consequences for society. In my opinion, bringing a child into the world that you don't want, and that you're not prepared for is one of the worst crimes to society that one can commit. It's these children who end up in the wrong crowds, and end up as jerks, bullies, drug addicts, degnerates, prostitutes, criminals, ...etc (not to mention people that are just plain unhappy). I believe that these children are better off never being born, and that society is better off if they are not born.

Can I stop people from having children for the wrong reasons? Of course not. But, our society should do its best to make sure that people who don't want to be parents don't end up as parents, and that certainly means not forcing them to be parents. On a side note, I think birth control should be subsidized in some way to make it really cheap and affordable to everyone who wants it. Now you might say "Wait a minute, why can't these unwanted children just be adopted." Well, I have some problems that.

1.) Pregnancy is no walk in the park. It means 9 months of frequent (sometimes constant) discomfort in many forms followed by labor, which I've heard is no fun either. Asking (or even requiring) another human being to go through that with basically nothing in it for them is not something that I feel is fair. Now, maybe you'll say that they deserve it for having sex prematurely, but the average person loses their virginity at 16 or so these days - in large part because parents aren't doing their jobs (Isn't this fun!). It would be nice to say that this shouldn't be happening, but I'm here to be practical, not sit around dreaming about how I wish the world worked. It's not fair to punish those who were unlucky and got pregnant - they're already going to have to pay for an abortion if they're not ready to be a parent.

2.) There is a chance that a woman/couple will get attached to the baby and decide to keep it when she/they shouldn't, which is something we want to avoid above all else. Psychologically, it's hard to go through all that without deluding yourself into thinking you're ready to be a parent.

3.) There are many problems in this world, but not having enough people just isn't one of them. Yes, for me it would be painful to not be able to have a child to raise. But from a societal perspective, having fewer people around is not going to hurt us anytime soon.

4.) Adoption does exist as a viable possibility (although the adoption system sucks I've heard), and right now there is a surplus of eager parents as compared to adoptable babies. But, it seems silly to have an idea/policy that relies on this always being the case. Ending up with a scenario where you have children with no homes is really, really bad. Even bad parents do better than no parents.

Most pro-life arguments rely on the belief that life is sacred or special. I think it's only sacred and special if it's meaningful and good. Many people in this live very sad, empty lives. This is a sobering fact that remains true - nobody likes to talk about it, but it is. The cause of this in a large percentage of cases is neglectful or abusive (or otherwise bad) parents. And many of those parents got into parenting without planning and/or wanting to. Think of how many times you hear about people getting married because they got pregnant. What a great idea - combining a lifelong promise that neither person ever intended to make with having a child they didn't really want and certainly didn't plan for. That's just a beautiful family in the making. If we're going to increase the number of reasonable adults in this society, we need to start taking parenting seriously. It's not something you just do. Personally, I think there ought to be a parenting course you have to pass before you're even allowed to bring a child into this world. Unfortunately, many people think just the opposite - that there are times when you should even be forced to have a child you don't really want and have no idea what to do with.

If you happen to believe that abortion is a sin, and punishable by an eternity in hell - well, I suppose it's kind of hard to argue with you, since there is no discussion there at all. If you're not going to think about it, I can't change your mind. Personally, were I a deity, I would rather my believers think about the consequences of their actions to the rest of the world rather than blindly follow what they think I want. But, to each his own.