How did you do with this week’s IQ test? Pass or fail?
You may have failed if you’ve recently started a post on social media with the words, “As a <insert inherent characteristic you have no control over> person, my opinion on the overturning of Roe vs Wade is….”, or words of a similar sentiment.
Newsflash: nobody gives a fuck what you think, especially if you haven’t actually read the Supreme Court ruling and are opining on the newspaper reports of it instead.
Yes, I am aware of the irony of that statement on a blog post about it but, in my defence, people come here by choice for my opinions.
I’ve written about abortion twice before here. First time about an individual, second time specifically about New South Wales. My opinion hasn’t changed; I’d prefer to live in a world where abortion didn’t happen for factors of convenience but only for safety reasons.
Many of those who loudly champion abortion on demand leverage that last reason, stating the mental healths risks to the mother, inferring the risk of suicide. But that same logic has resulting in several thousand teenage breasts being sliced off in the last decade and, frankly, piss off with that as a justification.
If your best argument for taking a physical action with extreme consequences is a possible risk of suicide, perhaps you might want to investigate psychiatry and the possibility of dedicated round the clock nursing care.
But I digress.
Despite what the public statements of organisations such as Dick’s Sporting Goods or Atlassian might suggest, abortion is still legal in the USA, it’s just been downgraded from a Federal right enshrined in the Constitution, to a matter each State’s legislative body can write laws about. If you think this means California is about to ban or limit abortion next week, you’ve not been paying much attention to the changes in political mood of that State since Ronald Reagan was Governor.
But think about this for a moment; those who are wailing about the end of the world following this ruling are questioning that it should be a democratically-decided matter.
How confident must one be of the moral certainty of your position if you’d prefer it if your fellow citizens weren’t given a choice?
As for the front page coverage of the lesbian Wendyball player, Megan Rapainoe’s rambling and incoherent unsolicited Zoom broadcast (sorry, “press conference”); we’ve truly gone down the rabbithole. What next, A ten minute monologue from Elton John on his favourite brand of tampon?
Bill’s Opinion
Cool yer jets, everyone.
Abortion has not been made illegal in the USA. It may, in future, become so in a couple of states. If so, it adds yet another to our list of choices for those who are “pro-choice”:
- Abstain from having sex.
- Abstain from having sex with someone you know you don’t want to be be with for the rest of your life.
- Use contraception, but be aware this carries a residual risk.
- If an “accident” happens, carry the baby to term and decide whether you can cope with parenthood after it’s born.
- Offer the child up for adoption to one of the desperate couples who can’t conceive naturally.
- Drive across the border.
- Kill the damn thing like a virus.
As I wrote to a friend the other day:
Roe v Wade was a horribly bad decision: it asserted a constitutional right that really didn’t exist. In my view there are three ways of looking at it:
1) I support a women’s right to abortion – so I support R v W, even if it is a bad decision
2) Abortion is morally wrong – so I oppose R v W, no matter the merits
3) Judicial decisions should be well founded – so I oppose R v W, despite the fact that I think women should have access to (safe, legal) abortions, within reasonable limits. That puts the onus on legislators to come up with reasonable abortion laws that will gain broad support (and that might require both extremes to compromise) – that’s what politics is *for*
3) is where I’m at.
Similarly with gay marriage; fine but do the work to ensure you don’t trample on the rights of those with religious views in opposition (“bake the cake, bigot”).
‘Zactly, Billy; I come down squarely on view #3
I suppose there is a fourth view, that I strenuously oppose abortion, but I am principled enough to oppose RvW on the merits, and would support (say) a state level law permitting abortion (which may depend on the particulars), or a Constitutional amendment to allow abortion (ditto), if it were ratified as required. But, I’ve never heard an anti-abortionist adopt that position; it may be the null set in our Venn diagram…
I think the act is barbaric except in the case of self defense…so just like murder.
However Ive come around to supporting legalized abortion on demand for purely cynical reasons: that the vast, vast majority of those who wish to kill their progeny also wish to take my rights and liberties. Though of course it pains me to think of the scale of death, the moral pangs are offset by the knowledge that my adversaries are removing themselves from the demographic future, and inflicting mental distress on themselves all the while.
Do not interrupt the enemy while they are making a mistake.