Florida Gators QB (and Heisman Trophy winner) Tim Tebow and his mother will take a pro-life stance in a commercial during the Super Bowl. Obviously, duh, this is a controversial issue.
En passant, when a friend vehemently asserted at a dinner table years ago that forcing women to have children they can't take care of was a "drain on the economy." I found that to be insulting to humans in that he thought (I assume) they can't rise to face their responsibilities and account for their actions. What happens, I asked, if an abortion takes the life of a potential great mind humanity could use? I used Stephen Hawking as an example. It was either him or Lloyd Christmas. I think I made the right choice for that debate.
I don't remember his response.
In any event, I think the decision to have or not have an abortion is best left to the parties involved. We can't possibly judge since we can never know the full details and circumstances in people's lives. You just have to trust they take and make the right choice according to the best of their abilities.
The problem with this position, though it is an honest one I've no doubt, is that there really can't be much long run compromise on what is basically unrestricted abortion. Either one side will eventually heavily restrict it to the point of being largely unavailable, or the other side will see that is not heavily restricted much as it is at this time.
ReplyDeleteThe view from the two sides do not meet in the middle in substantial ways. The divide is in many ways comparable to that of the slavery debate. It certainly is in the eyes of the partisans on either side of this issue.
There are a few other issues like this as well, gay marriage being one of those issues. A single payer health care program is the other deep divide issue in the U.S.