After reading Red Handed's vehement support of abortion , which she has explained with so much poise, I somehow felt that it had hit one nail on the head , but failed to touch the broader issue at hand. This and some of the comments posted by readers , prompted me to think and I decided to answer to Red's PS and post my views here.
1) Abortion is probably the only reasonable path of action if either the foetus is not healthy or if the mother's health is in danger or in case of rape. I do not think many people disagree on that.
2)Abortion is also the path of least resistance for an unmarried girl who becomes pregnant because of the harassment from the society that she will have to face if she had decided to raise the child on her own.
3)While I do agree with couples who decide to abort , when even after the best of precautions taken, the girl still gets pregnant, I believe that while it is entirely possible , the probability of it happening is very low.(Come on guys and Gals, the egg is available only 24 hrs in a month).Neither do I agree with the way abortion is becoming increasingly used as a method of contraception.(What if I get pregnant, We can always have an abortion na..).
4)Many people commented that they support abortion because it prevents unwanted and unloved babies from being born and it was actually a good thing to abort such babies anyway. Who are we to decide if that is what is good for the baby? Think for a moment , If Virgin Mary had decided to abort Jesus ,Christ? Or if Steve Jobs' parents had aborted him instead of giving him up for adoption ?
5) A lot of people said at the same time , that they supported all but gender based abortions. If the above point is valid(Which I question in the first place), how can this scenario be different? A prostitute aborts her girl child because she wants the kid to escape from the life that is awaiting her.A woman who has been harassed all her life by her in laws decides to abort a girl child so that her daughter does not have to go through the same ignominious life that she faced.
6) A lot of people seemed to think that the fetus is not a baby before 20 weeks. That is absolutely not true.The baby is very much alive at 12 weeks, I saw my son's ultrasound scan at 12 weeks and the baby had everything including an attitude.
What I wanted to convey is that doing it for the good of the baby is utter tosh. If you make this decision you are doing it for yourself. You are just reiterating that your life is important to you and you are as any being in this universe , bound to even take a life , when your life or right to live is threatened. Ultimately it is a choice that you have to make for yourself and love or hate yourself for it. Which is why I hope and pray I never have to take such a decision in my lifetime.
P.S : Red Handed is an amazing writer and I am a big fan and this post is not meant to insult her in any way. Just my personal opinions in the matter.
1) Abortion is probably the only reasonable path of action if either the foetus is not healthy or if the mother's health is in danger or in case of rape. I do not think many people disagree on that.
2)Abortion is also the path of least resistance for an unmarried girl who becomes pregnant because of the harassment from the society that she will have to face if she had decided to raise the child on her own.
3)While I do agree with couples who decide to abort , when even after the best of precautions taken, the girl still gets pregnant, I believe that while it is entirely possible , the probability of it happening is very low.(Come on guys and Gals, the egg is available only 24 hrs in a month).Neither do I agree with the way abortion is becoming increasingly used as a method of contraception.(What if I get pregnant, We can always have an abortion na..).
4)Many people commented that they support abortion because it prevents unwanted and unloved babies from being born and it was actually a good thing to abort such babies anyway. Who are we to decide if that is what is good for the baby? Think for a moment , If Virgin Mary had decided to abort Jesus ,Christ? Or if Steve Jobs' parents had aborted him instead of giving him up for adoption ?
5) A lot of people said at the same time , that they supported all but gender based abortions. If the above point is valid(Which I question in the first place), how can this scenario be different? A prostitute aborts her girl child because she wants the kid to escape from the life that is awaiting her.A woman who has been harassed all her life by her in laws decides to abort a girl child so that her daughter does not have to go through the same ignominious life that she faced.
6) A lot of people seemed to think that the fetus is not a baby before 20 weeks. That is absolutely not true.The baby is very much alive at 12 weeks, I saw my son's ultrasound scan at 12 weeks and the baby had everything including an attitude.
What I wanted to convey is that doing it for the good of the baby is utter tosh. If you make this decision you are doing it for yourself. You are just reiterating that your life is important to you and you are as any being in this universe , bound to even take a life , when your life or right to live is threatened. Ultimately it is a choice that you have to make for yourself and love or hate yourself for it. Which is why I hope and pray I never have to take such a decision in my lifetime.
P.S : Red Handed is an amazing writer and I am a big fan and this post is not meant to insult her in any way. Just my personal opinions in the matter.
