Why is abortion so bad?

Question

i dont get it. im not saying im for abortion. but, if the birth would make both the parents and baby's lives miserable, why go through with it.

its not like the baby has emotions yet.

someone please explain?????

Answer 1

Short answer: Because it is the taking of a human life.

Long answer: I have thought about this quite a bit over the years. The wide spread of opinions is incredible, matched only by the passion of the activists on all sides. This is an issue that few people are even able to have a civilized discussion about. Complicating it further is that there are few that hold a black-and-white view of the issue. The majority of people in the US see abortion as a giant grey area with varying degrees of abortion considered acceptable. Very few people hold the position of unlimited abortion access or no abortion under any circumstances. Below is the process I went through to come up with my position on the matter.

First, I asked myself the question at what point does a human being obtain "personhood" and as such gain all the legal and moral protections that status entitles them to? There are some who say that the point of personhood is 28 days AFTER birth, at which point you still should be allowed to abort. In fact, there is a professor of ethics at Princeton University that actively advocates this position. Others say up to the point of birth. These folks, such as Barak Obama, would hold that this type of infanticide as well as partial birth abortion is a reasonable procedure. This is the position that spurred “Born Alive” legislation that says if a woman attempts an abortion and the baby survives, that doctors cannot withhold care and let the baby die on the operating table. Or perhaps just before birth while the mother is in labor. Or 6 months of gestation or 3 months or three weeks. I wrestled with this for a long time.

Then I looked at the issue a different way. Does human life have an imputed value or an intrinsic one? If we say that it is imputed, meaning the value is derived from something else, some outside criteria, then any one of the above positions would be equally valid. We as a society would decide what criteria to select. My problem with this is what criteria do you use? On what basis is a baby at 6 weeks more valuable than a baby at 5 weeks? Is a baby that has not yet developed a heart still a baby? This hit really hard on my wife and I when we lost one of our children. Lynne had a miscarriage a few years ago. When people with strong pro-choice sentiments gave us their condolences, they referred to the fetus as a child, even though she (we named her Grace, even though we do not know for sure if she was a she or a he. It made it easier to explain to the other children what happened and easier for Lynne and I to grieve our loss) was at the same gestational point, 9 weeks, that they believed abortion was merely removing some unwanted tissue of the mother. So, the criteria used is whether or not a child is wanted? If that is so, then why? The characteristics of an object of any sort are not contingent on another person’s belief or perception.

By similar logic, if the value of human life is imputed, it can also be taken away, depending on what some person or group of persons believe that life is worth. So if you happen to be mentally retarded or black or Jewish, it would be perfectly reasonable for you to be killed off for the good of the community if the majority of them believe it. I have a friend who is paralyzed from the neck down and constantly in pain. There are some in the world who would look at her and say that she has no quality of life or that the money and effort to support her would be better used on others. They would have her die due to her handicap. But knowing her the way I do I find the notion that she is without a quality of life to be ridiculous on its face. She is a writer, a painter, and heads up an international charity. I’d call that a pretty good quality of life. So would her husband who married her years after her accident put her in the wheelchair. Thus, the imputed value logic is shown to me to be completely arbitrary. Following any of the “prior to this point it is not human but at this one on it is” positions is likewise arbitrary and is not able to answer the question of personhood.

But consider the proposition that human life has an intrinsic value. That it is valuable simply because it is human life and no other reason. No measure or quantification of the value of it, it is and that is enough. It is sort of like gold. Gold is valuable because it is gold, not because we as a society stood up one day and said, “we are going to make gold valuable”. Gold has an intrinsic value as opposed to an imputed value, such as paper currency. Paper currency is worthless in and of itself. It has value only because we say it has a certain value.

This position then would support a clear line between human life and not human life. With this position, you are a human at the point that you have a unique genetic code. In other words, at conception. Prior to that, there was no “you”. The male and female reproductive components in and of themselves are not a unique genetic code, but  

Answer 2

Put yourself in the babies shoes(booties). What if your parents decided to abort you. You wouldn't be here now. At least give the baby up for adoption. The only reason I believe you should have an abortion is if you have a disease that having a baby could kill you. My sister-in-law has Graves disease and getting pregnant could kill her. Also if the baby has serious health problems in the womb and the doctors know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the baby will not make it to full term.  

Answer 3

not exactly smart to post an abortion question in pregnancy.... but its just the thought of having your own precious little baby, that youve created from your life... one time I watched a video of someone doing an abortion, with the vaccum thing, and the poor baby moved all the way to the other side of the mothers womb and curled into a little ball trying to get away from the vaccum... it was horrable.

Answer 4

People shouldn't be having s*x if abortion is their "only" option. There are plenty of couples in this world who cannot conceive, so adoption would be a great option. Your giving the baby a wonderful life, so I don't see how its miserable. And a baby doesn't need to have emotions to know it's dying. It's a human life as soon as it has a heartbeat.  

Answer 5

Abortion is bad because is murder...!

Answer 6

If you havent got it by now, you never will

Answer 7

okay- you called it a baby.

So- its a child. It's a human being.

The baby would have a life...rather than be burned alive by saline abortions...

Or pulled out in a partial abortion and stabbed in the back of the head..then suck the brain out...

How is that NOT misery?

The parents of the child made the "mistake". The child should not have to suffer on behalf of their stupidity..

Besides that-

Abortion is the easy way out. And too many women are relying on that as a type of "birth control".

If the people werent ready for a child-They should ave never started sexual intercourse in the first place..

When you break a $10000 vase...do you say "no it fell by itself".

No- because clearly we know the vase can not move and can not smash itself on the floor. reason being its immobile and can not take blame... Like a child-it should not take the blame for you getting pregnant/and being irresponible..

If women never went through the birthing process...

If the whole birthing process was changed to

"oops i missed my period"

Heres a stork bringing your baby to you...

Would you step on the child and kill it?

Or would you shoot the stork?

How is an abortion any different!?

Answer 8

Because it's inhuman ! You can always give your baby up for a family who  can't even conceive a baby and bloom their lives forever.

Answer 9

why is this ridicules question in the pregnancy question.

abortion is bad because its murder.... moron.

Answer 10

It's called murder!

To use the idea that an unborn baby doesn't feel emotions ( not sure I would buy that) as an argument for why it is ok isn't much of an argument.  Some severly retarded individuals express few if any emotions but if you killed one it would still be murder.  

Answer 11

There isn't anything wrong with it. Pro-lifers say it's murder but it isn't. How can you even kill something that is not a living breathing human being?

A fetus is not a baby until it is born living & breathing on its own.

If it was murder like how these people claim then abortion would be illegal which it's legal so i do not get why they even brother going on the way they do ober abortion.

It is a woman's choice to have one, it is none of no ones buisness.

People say well it is alive, ok if i wanted an abortion at 8 weeks would that fetus be alive and could survive once it was out of my body? No because it is not alive in the first place.

Answer 12

It's something I didn't really understand until I was pregnant. Now I do and I cannot really explain my feelings.

But, if a baby is put up for adoption to a good home - how is its life miserable?

Answer 13

I feel it is wrong for many reasons, but one being that the baby doesn't get a say in things.  He/she is person too, and sometimes people like to forget that.  If someone asked you if you wanted to live or die, I'm betting you would choose to live.  I feel certain these babies would answer that way as well.  There's no reason why a baby should make anyone's life miserable.  If the mother doesn't want the baby she can leave the baby at "safe points" like a hospital ER or fire station with no questions asked and the state will take the baby into their care.

Answer 14

Wow.... life is so precious and to think that people can create a life and then extinguish it with out a second thought is barbaric, i love each and everyone of my kids (5 in total) and its hard work but the thought of my child being sucked pulled cut out of me is to much to bear, seriously not being funny go ask someone who has had an abortion and is trying to live with the regret there tell you first hand experience

Answer 15

many people think of it as murder.

Answer 16

Abortion is Murder..

I agree if the person was raped, but just to have an abortion just because you weren't responsible enough to take care of yourself.I completely disagree...!

Don't expect nice answers, this is pregnancy section..

Answer 17

Having emotions is not what makes a person a person.

It begins with the understanding that s*x and procreation are forever connected. In order to procreate we must have s*x and when we have s*x, the knowledge that a child could be created should be a consideration. People who do not want children should not have s*x.

The idea that we have a right to s*x without pregnancy is why we have abortion. As a society we have come to think that sterile s*x is the norm, when in fact it is not. Then when someone turns up pregnant, they wipe the baby away as if it garbage.

The assumption that an unplanned, or unwanted child will live a horrible life is not true. There are many wanted children who suffer and are abused. There are many women who had a baby they didn't want and love that child and would never harm them in any way. So the idea that unplanned child equals a life of abuse and neglect is not supported with statistics. Additionally, since the legalization of abortion child abuse and neglect has gone up...not down.

Abortion is nothing more than a seriously selfish act. It is the death of a human being who had no choice in it's conception and has no choice in it's death. It's a life that is snuffed out because it is inconvenient. A very sad statement.

All life is sacred. All life should be given the right to live and seek out their own way. There is always adoption for anyone who decides they cannot afford a child or are not ready for a child. There are many loving couples willing and waiting to love a child. There is no good reason to abort an innocent baby...ever.

Answer 18

I know some people that have miscarriages.  They grief for the lost of the baby(soul).  

They is always adoption

Then you should not be having s*x, if you can not handle pregnancy

Answer 19

If you do not understand why people are against abortions, you will never understand. If you are saying you are agaist abortions, then why are you even questioning it. If a woman gets pregnant and wants to kill her child just because she made a mistake or feels like her and the baby's lives are going to be miserable, then she should have thought long and hard about that before she ever had s*x.  

Answer 20

ok well to answer this short and sweet everyone has their own personal opinions whether religious or otherwise on abortion....it is a really big debate on whether its right or wrong ....some beleive that the baby is a human being as soon as you concieve so abortion is considered murder.....others beleive that its not trully a human being until they start to develop physically so they think its okay to get rid of something they consider non human....my personal opinion abortion is not a form of birth control and should never be used as one but reality is women do use it as birth control everyday instead of taking the proper precautions ie birth control condoms etc. I do however believe that if a women was raped she has the right to choose whether to keep the child or terminate the pregnancy for having the baby could do more harm to the child in the long run.  but when it comes down to it everyone has their own opinions and has the right to choose so to judge someone about their personal choices I dont think is right we all have the right to make our own desicions

Answer 21

Oh my god if i actually see another abortion question Im gonna go ballistic..

Answer 22

Posting a question like this in the pregnancy section is not going to change people's minds.  You might want to start a debate in the politics section or something.  Or just read one of the gazillion debates on this topic that are already out there...