Vegetarians- pro life ?

Question

I have a legitmate question, so please no hateful replies.

I have always thought vegitarians are more concerned with protecting animal life than human life and I am wondering if I am wrong. I truely don't understand why some will go to any extent to protect animals, but don't have a problem with abortion. I hate cruelty to animals and I also am against abortion. I currently have 3 shelter dogs and I am terribly allergic to dogs. I have to take medicin and use inhalers just to live in the same house as my dogs. If you are pro abortion, I just would like to know why. It just doesn't make sence to me. I hope my thinking has been wrong and there are more prolife vegetarians than I think. Please no hateful replies, this is a genuine question.

Answer 1

I am vegetarian and totally prochoice. It is not because I feel less concern for people, but b/c I am concerned with the right woman should have to choose, and for the life that fetus will become.

I believe that there are already plenty of unwanted children in this world. Who would pro life legislation effect? Not the rich or middle class, but the poor, young, etc.

What would happen to all these children? Think about all the abortions that are performed every year, all these abortions would be children. I believe there would be an increase in child abuse, possibly the reintroduction of orphanages. I think it is tragic enough that many children grow up in foster homes without parents(as great as many foster homes are, they are not a real home and the children know that), and eventually they end up aging out of the system. In a way I think pro-choice is pro-life, I am for the children already born into this world, that live without the security and love of a family. We need to fix these problems first.

What I find hypocritical is the pro-lifers. How many people that are pro-life have adopted African American babies, sick, drug addicted babies, mentally/physically handicapped, or any children at all? Not many, I also find it interesting that people in America will go all the way to China to adopt a healthy white baby instead of adopting an African American baby in the United States. I commend you for at least fosters and making a difference in the lives of the children placed into the system, so many people talk the talk, yet do nothing.

I can't think of anything worse than a child coming into this world unwanted by their parents, and even though there are some parents that would love and care for the child after they gave birth, there are many more that would resent and most likely abuse and neglect the child.

We are talking about poor, young mothers that are left to raise these children alone. 52% of women obtaining abortions in the U.S. are younger than 25(and this is an older stat., it probably higher by now.) Who pays for these children, not a struggling unwed mother, so the burden shifts to the tax payers.  In 2002, 1.29 million abortions took place . Image these all as children, what would happen to them?

Also, not all people who receive abortions were irresponsible when they had s*x,  Fifty-four percent of women having abortions used a contraceptive method during the month they became pregnant. Among those women, 76% of pill users and 49% of condom users reported using their method inconsistently, while 13% of pill users and 14% of condom users reported correct use.  Contraceptives are not a fail safe. All is well and good to say you wouldn't abort a fetus if you are well established(monetary, economically, career, husband/wife) when/if your contraceptive method fails, but it is much harder to do if you are low income, young and uneducated.

It is easy to say abortions should not happen, but think of it in terms of children that would actually be in this world. I won't even go into the statistics about adults that come from families where they were neglected, abused and unwanted. I don't only think we would see an increase of children in foster care, but an increase down the road of criminals.

Answer 2

It all depends on the person. I know pro life AND pro choice vegans, they're both out there.

For me the question has always been, 'How can someone care so much about a life that has not even been born yet but will so easily discard an animal's life for the pettiest reasons?'

Answer 3

Human rights and choice differs from the lack of choice animals have.  By the way..nobody is "pro-abortion".

Answer 4

I have friends and family that are vegetarians for various reasons, some for health some for ethical. I respect their reasons even if I don't hold the same view point.

What does bother me is when people think it is better to abort an unwanted pregnancy that to have it born to parents who might abuse or neglect them.

I was born to parents who did not want me. Had abortion been legal, I probably would have been aborted. My parents only married because of me. They did not love each other and they regretted having to get married because of me.

They were both abusive to me. I don't remember a day going by that I was not abused either physically or emotionally.

I left home at 17 and I am 53. I worked very hard at overcoming my upbringing and not perpetuating a vicious cycle of abuse with my own children. I have a very healthy marriage (we will be married 31 yrs this month) and 3 very well adjusted children.

Had it been better for my parents to abort me? NO WAY. I am glad to be alive. I wish my life would have been different, but I am the person I am today because of my past.

I care deeply about issues of abuse for people and animals, but for me, human life is by far more important.

I'm glad my parents didn't have a choice.

Answer 5

Hey,

This is tough: abortion is such a controversial issue for many reasons, as is animal rights. But the reality is, for me at least, it's not a case of one or the other. One can help both humans and animals, and that's the way I believe things should be.

I'm not generally much in favour of abortion, except in specific circumstances (e.g. where birth or gestation threatens the life of the mother, the baby may suffer from genetic abnormalities or profound disability, or if the baby was conceived through rape). Prevention of pregnancy I think is infinitely preferable rather than having to comtemplate abortion.

Where veggies get passionate about animal rights is because animal suffering and cruelty is so closely linked to human suffering and cruelty. Eating animal products in any great quantities greatly increases risk of human disease, and raising animals for food and clothing on a large is environmentally destructive, and threatens human wellbeing too. Treating and labelling animals with cruelty and disrespect has also been argued by a number of writers as providing a model for cruelty to humans as well (recall Jews in the Holocaust being termed "pigs" "animals" and "vermin", making the n**i atrocities much easier to carry out).

Animal welfare and suffering is linked closely to human suffering, worldwide. That's why cruelty and disrespect, to both humans and animals, must stop.

Answer 6

I'm vegan and I value human life way, way over animal life. I'm a lifelong political activist, fighting for human rather than animal  rights.

One of the rights I've fought for for years is a woman's right to choose. I am 100% pro-choice - as others have pointed out, nobody is 'pro-abortion'. I also reject the term 'pro-life', I prefer to say anti-choice.

I'm pro-choice because I value life - the lives of the thousands of women who would die without legal abortion, and the lives of the countless numbers of women who die when they cannot obtain abortions.

In countries where abortion is illegal, women have abortions anyway - dangerous, life threatening and sometimes fatal abortions. This used to happen in countries where abortion is legal, and still does where it is legal but in reality hard to get.

For me it's a class issue too. It is women without the money to buy safe abortions - something wealthy women have always been able to do, legal abortion or no - who died and continue to die. I care about their lives so I'm pro-choice.

I'm old enough to remember the time before abortion was legal in my country. I remember the whispers about a friend's teenage cousin who died following a botched illegal abortion, and friends par-boiling themselves in hot baths because they feared they were pregnant.

Stories of knitting needles, coat hangers, and other implements being used by desperate women to self-abort are not just horror stories, they are true

I am strongly in favour of women being in control of their own lives and destinies, and part of this is control over their own fertility. Yes, prevention is better, and education about safe and effective contraception would prevent the need for some abortions. But with the best will in the world contraception sometimes fails. It is ludicrous to talk, as some people do, of women using abortion as contraception - abortion is a hideous experience.

I'm vegan because I choose to minimise my contribution to animal suffering. I'm pro-choice because I value the lives of women and their right to choose. I don't think the two have anything to do with each other - the percentages of veg*ns who are pro- and ant- choice are the same as the percentages of meat-eaters who are pro- and anti-choice, I'm sure.

Answer 7

don't apologize for using the term "pro abortion"

I use the term "pro murder"

hiding the facts with PC terminology doesn't change the facts..

But yes, I favor contraception

anti-choice.. I like that.. I'm proud to be anti-anyone's right to chose to murder another human-being because they wanted to s***w around and not deal with the consequences..

I of course accept abortion in cases where the pregnancy endangers the mother's life. If you have to chose between one life or another..  you have to chose.  

And rape is a sticky issue.. I'd be hesitant to deny someone the right to abort a pregnancy that results from rape. I don't like it, but would be hesitant to deny it.

women who would die without legal abortion? Okay, I said if the pregnancy endangers the mother it should be allowed.. You talking about back alley, dangerous abortions?  I have limited sympathy for those women..they are CHOSING to endanger their lives by doing something so stupid.. no one's forcing them.. and guess what?  Most girls/women were smart enough to not risk it... there were FAR FAR fewer women who aborted when it was illegal..

So, we should try to save the thousands of people who die from badly produced cocaine every year, by making it legal and "safer?" You're saying we should let Anhieser Bush take over the production of cocaine so we can trust it wasn't made in someone's basement and mixed with a deadly dangerous chemical?? And make it legal??

Answer 8

Abortion is completely irrelevant.  

The number of livestock maimed and killed every day in the USA is nearly 30 MILLION and abortions only account for about 3,700 per day.

It doesn't matter what anyone thinks on the issue.  Whether it remains legal or it becomes outlawed, it's still going to continue, only with far more dire consequences if outlawed (death to baby and possible death to mother from infection, trauma, etc.)

Answer 9

If you research on famous veggies and vegans such as Peter Singer and Tom Reagan and Joan Dunayer and Peta organisers then you will discover that they are also involved with human rights issues.

However, I am vegan and am admitedly far more concerned with nonhuman issues as I feel that in comparison they are much deeper problems than any aids or cancer crisis or 3rd world hunger or human slavery or tsunami. I also believe that most of these problems could be solved if there was no animal exploitation although people can be so selfish that the will never try to help other species so long as they have there own problems.

Answer 10

Was your medicine and inhalers tested on lab animals ?

Perhaps keeping rescue dogs is a bad thing to do when you need to support lab testing in order to keep them.

Thats not a "hateful" comment, its just questioning your behaviour as an illustration of exactly what you are doing to others. Just so you can see what its like.

I was part of Amnysty International long before any veggie involvment and i find your comment about "always thought vegitarians are more concerned with protecting animal life than human life" quite insulting.

I don't see why there should be any corrolation between vegetarianism and abortion. They are seperate topics.

Vegetarians are not one mass of people that share exactly the same views. We have our diet in common. thats it.

Some are veggie for health reasons, some religous, some cost, some culture, some moral, some environmental. Some even because they think its trendy. All are not likely to have the same view on abortion.

Answer 11

I am a vegetarian, and am also pro-life. I believe that no life should be wasted, and no creature tortured, but I am not entirely against the killing of animals for food. It is the natural way of the world. Humans are omnivores; I choose not to be, but it's not my place to make anyone else do the same. I am also largely very left minded, other than some very key points, such as that. Many people think my political and moral beliefs contradict each other, so it's refreshing to see someone who agrees with me.

Women who would be truly in danger by continuing a pregnancy should most certainly have the "right" to end it. Nobody should have to sacrifice their own life for that of someone they haven't even met. The same goes for any woman who did not consent to the s*x which led to the pregnancy, whether it was forcible rape or for age or mental reasons they were not capable of giving it.

However, those who've mentioned the "thousands" of women who would die with back alley abortions have obviously jumped on the misinformation bandwagon. REPUTABLE sources indicated that figure is far over-reaching, and there are always people willing to adopt a newborn baby, especially if it is a healthy one. Further, most babies that at birth are unhealthy enough that they would be difficult to adopt out would also be the kind of problematic/risky pregnancies in which abortion should be allowed.

As a note, I don't think pro-abortion is a bad way to put it, for the most part. Calling it pro-choice is just a way to gloss over and prettify the very ugly reality of what it is.

Answer 12

First of all, absolutely nobody is pro-abortion, not even the doctors who perform them.  I believe in contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancy in the first place (something many so-called pro-lifers oppose) because if you prevent unwanted pregnancies, you prevent abortion.  Right?  You do favor contraception, don't you?  

I value actual lives over potential lives, so the pregnant woman matters more than the embryo inside her, and a five-year-old child matters more than a five-month fetus.  I value someone who has been born over someone who has not, and it seems the antichoice take the opposite view.  Did you know that states that have the most liberal repro rights laws do more to help poor families than states that have restrictive repro rights laws?

What I'd like to know is how someone can be prolife and eat dead animals, be pro-gun, be pro-war, and be pro-death penalty.  You might want to ask that of some of your fellow "pro-lifers".  I'd like to know why the Catholic Church has a bigger issue with its members who support pro-choice causes than with its members who devalue life in other ways--I don't see them denying communion to politicians who support capital punishment, you know.

Answer 13

Number one, NOBODY is pro-abortion.  The term is pro-choice and it recognizes that you can personally be anti-abortion but can still recognize that efforts to restrict access to abortion is dangerous and counter-productive.

Secondly, the two issues are not related in any way, shape or form.  Being pro-choice does not mean one cares more about animals than about humans; that's inflammatory and untrue.  There's no evidence that a 6 week old embryo has the capacity to suffer.  There's all the evidence in the world that a living, breathing cow does.

Also, people are vegetarians or reasons beyond protecting animals.  Some people are vegetarian to protect themselves and their health, some even under doctor's orders.  There are also environmental reasons and legitimate political reasons why someone would opt not to support intensive animal agriculture.  Chilc mortality in Guatemala has increased over the last decade, since Guatemala started using choice land to raise cattle for beef export to the US; the peasants who used to feed themselves on that land are now relegated to inferior land and are unable to nourish their (living, breathing) children.  I care about people, too, which is part of why I don't eat meat.  I cannot, in good conscience, support a practice like that.

I am vegan and I am also pro-choice.  Where you see a conflict, I see logic that makes perfect sense to me.  I don't consume dairy products because I don't believe a cow should be repeatedly forced to give birth and  lactate for longer than nature ever intended.  I respect her right to sovereignty over her own body.  Why would I extend any less consideration to a human woman?  Pro-choice is simply about not imposing your own morals on another person; it's about respecting a woman's ability to make those choices without YOUR help.

As a foster parent, surely you must realize that there are already enough children who don't have safe, secure homes.  If abortion were to be criminalized, that number would only increase.  Are there enough good foster parents to care for them all?  I think the current state of foster care makes it clear that the answer is no.

Answer 14

Very thoughtful question. I am a vegan concerned with protecting animal life, but that doesn't mean I am not concerned with human life. Quite the opposite. I believe you cannot have one without the other.

I am not pro abortion -- I am pro choice. I believe that everyone should have the right to do with their own bodies what they believe is the right thing to do for THEMSELVES, not anyone else. A woman should have the choice of keeping a fetus to term or aborting the fetus which is a part of her body.

My beliefs may not apply to you or someone else. You may choose not to abort a fetus, I may choose not to abort a fetus, but you and I should never be able to make that decision for someone else no matter what we would choose for ourselves.

The beliefs of one should never dictate the choice of others in regards to ones own body.

Thanks for asking, it's nice that you're open to what others think and feel. :o)

Answer 15

I'm a vegetarian for health reasons, but I've always wondered about that myself. Many of the animal rights people I know are very much pro-choice. It seems pretty inconsistent that they're willing to stand up for animals, who can't speak for themselves, but not for other potential humans who are in that same boat.

However, I think most animal rights people who are pro-choice see this as about the woman's right to choose whether she wishes to bring another person onto the planet. I personally think that's a pretty immoral thing to do in this day and age with the world's population exploding like it is. I commend you for taking in the children that you do and giving the people we already have on this planet better lives. We certainly don't need more people when we can't take care of the ones we already have...

Also, I think most pro-choice animal rights people believe that the woman's rights would supersede the rights of a fetus, who isn't protected under the law in the early stages and is technically a parasite for the first few months. Animals have been born and tend to be able to survive on their own. In that respect, they're seen as more of a 'life' than a fetus in the early stages would be.

Personally, I think both arguments are flawed, at least from the legal perspective. I always thought an entity had to be a citizen of some jurisdiction to have 'rights.' Therefore, I can't understand how one could argue that either animals or fetuses would have 'rights' to anything in court. Perhaps on a greater moral level they do, but certainly not in our legal system.

Answer 16

My hats off to you for this question.  Although I am not a vegetarian today, I have been.  Based on have been I want to take a stab at answering this.  My being a vegetarian had everything to do with healthy and a touch of religion.  My being a vegetarian has never been about animal rights.  I hold a human life far higher than I do an animal life.  This is not to say I don't value animal life.  Cause a life is important human or animal.  God created life end of story!  As far as abortions I am against them.  I can't think of a good reason for them, not one!  But that having been said I would have to call myself pro choice.  Abortions happened before Roe-v-Wade.  A sad reality but they sure did.  The worst reason ever for an abortion is birth control.  

_______

I can see the connection you've made and wow how powerful.

Answer 17

I'm pro-choice because if a person really doesn't want a child, can't support a child because they are a teen, or get pregnant  because they were raped then it is really their choice to have an abortion. It is like a vegan and a meat eater. The vegan may say, "Meat isn't nice to eat", but it is the meat eater's choice to continue to contribute to animal cruelty.

Answer 18

I am pro-life in most cases, but if someone got raped, then they got pregnant, I think I would be okay with abortion.

Answer 19

I'm a vegetarian and I'm pro life, as for me I  don't agree with killing....

I think is up to the person, their own opinions and mind level.

An example is Hitler  a vegetarian and animal protector ,even prohibited animal vivisection and all types of animal abuse. As history tolds  how many people and children were killed ,abused in labs and send to his killing camps including the animal abusers and race wasnt an obstacle....

Answer 20

:o) I'm a vegan and are not pro life.  

Honestly, these things have nothing to do with one another.  My reasons for being vegan and the care of living animals has nothing to do with my reason to be for abortion.  Animals need the voice of people, an unborn baby has the voice of it's mother.  It is her choice and her circumstances that she needs to consider.  If aborting a baby is the right thing for her, then it should be her choice and not ours to make.   There is no reason to force someone to have a child, even if they were irresponsible in some cases.  The neglect of children and children in foster care and abusive homes would be less had the woman been able to have an abortion.  I would much rather woman get rid of an unborn fetus then neglect or abuse a child.

There was a woman that wanted to have her baby aborted.  Her husband fought her on it and she had the kid.  She was a drug addict and did not want her husband to raise the kid.  She was declared an unfit mother and the ex husband at the time got custody of the kid.  The kid was abused for 6 years in his fathers care.  Eventually the kid ended up in foster care because the father was facing child abuse charges.  The mother was unfit and the kid had no where to go.  He lived in 12 different foster homes before taking his own life when he was 15.  Don't you think that is more cruel then aborting a fetus?

Answer 21

i'm a vegetarian for ethical/moral reasons and i'm also pro-choice.  the fetus in the beginning stages, is just that, a fetus.  i don't feel like it's "murder" or anything like that as it is still just a cluster of cells that have hardly begun a "life". i know plenty of people out there disagree. but i look at it from a scientific view and i think at that beginning point that it is ok to terminate the pregnancy.  i think my concern is more with the life of the mother and with the life the child will end up with than the as yet undeveloped cluster of cells.  people say "adoption!" but i'd like to know how many of them are going to adopt or have adopted?  how many of those children end up spending their lives in foster care and unhappy and with other problems?  abortion not something that anyone who does it just says "oh i'm pregnant, lets get one" like it's ice cream... it's a hard decision and usually a last resort, as it should be.  but it should still be an option and should be a decision made by the mother and father and doctors. not politicians, not religious people, and not anyone else who's not involved with the life of that family and would be child.

Answer 22

I am a vegetarian for the animals.  Just because I care about animals in no way means I do not care about humans.  I feel just as much sympathy for a human being abused as I do an animal being abused.

I will do whatever needs to be done to protect a life being hurt in front of me, animal or human.  We all feel the same physical and emotional pain.  

I am pro life because abortions are fetuses, they do not suffer when they are aborted, they are too young in the womb. And I feel that it is a womans right to choose, I would never get one but I cannot tell others that they can't.  I am however against partial birth abortions and if there are any people who do it over and over again just because they don't want a kid.

I do not have a problem with people eating animals, what I have a problem with is the abuse and suffering they are forced to endure for humans to get meat.  It dosen't have to be this way.  Well, I am against eating anything that we cannot kill with our bare hands because I don't feel that it is natural if we have to use tools to kill them.  

I think you are wrong about veg. people being more concerned about protecting animals than humans.  I do what I can to help both animals and humans.  I find that what is happening to animals far worse than what is happening to humans.  Mostly because of the numbers, over 50 billion land animals are killed a year just for food and most of them are suffering while they are alive.  Then there is also animal testing, bearbaiting, bearbile farms, dog/horse and other fighting, illeagal dog and horse meat trades, fur farms, puppy mills, the list could go on and on and on.  And because animals have no rights, cannot speak, and cannot get away from their abusers.