The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.
–Georges Bernanos
Abortion is a hot button issue mainly because both sides care a great deal about the things they see themselves protecting: a woman's control over her own body, her self, her personhood; an unborn child's right to simply live. I don't mean to answer that question here in this small space. (What hubris that would be!) I do intend to state where I am in all of this and that is in a state of moral dilemma. I see both sides as protecting things that are worthwhile, even essential.
To put it as succinctly as I can, I am a pro-lifer unwilling to save lives by any means. I have always had moral problems with abortion and pro-choice arguments to the contrary have only solidified that position. I am not, however, a contraception-is-abortion pro-lifer. I don't think RU-486 is an "abortion pill." I tend to follow those in the medical profession who won't perform abortions on unborn who clearly can feel and react to what is happening to them. In that, I find it cruel and inhuman.
But what has always given me pause in supporting it's legal ban, is the truth in what I am doing, i.e. via the state, usurping power and control over the most intimate parts of a woman's body. An act very similar to rape. But to put it in more palatable terms, it is violating the physical person of one individual for the sake of another in our society. And that is something that the majority of the Pro-Life movement does not acknowledge, at least that I can see. We would recoil in horror if the state required people to donate bodily tissue, a kidney for example, in order to save the lives of others. It goes against many of our core principles surrounding human rights.
So yeah, I would ban abortion in a heartbeat (no pun intended) if I could do so if the means were justified unto themselves. But until I live in a world of artificial wombs and a society that stands ready to take responsibility for the children that will result from our actions, I remain in my moral Catch-22.
