Abortion has been a hot topic lately, and I know nobody asked for it, but here’s my thoughts:
We need to make sure that women have access to safe and legal abortions. From a medical standpoint, as many of my friends who work in medicine have mentioned, abortions are going to happen ban or no ban, so why not make sure they are safe. However, this debate goes beyond evidence and facts because your stance on the issue depends on what you believe. If you believe life begins at conception, then abortion is murder. To that point though, I think this post by Methodist pastor, Dave Barnhart pretty much covers it. Ok, sure you can advocate for the unborn if you want. If you believe an individual’s life begins at conception, that’s yours to believe. But if you do, you should also be advocating just as hard for all the other lives that are threatened. Every day people are dying in the streets, abandoned and alone, but the there’s no outrage over that, barely a fuss.
We love passing judgement on those who are already born. Once you are born you have agency over your life and therefore if things aren’t going great, it’s your own damn fault. On one hand passing judgement on other people seems like a very human thing to do. We evaluate others’ actions and determine whether they are in-line with our own personal codes, values, and philosophies. At its core judgement is a form of kindness. Each individuals lives are certain way because they believe it to be “good” and they want others to live similarly. People want to guide others, their kids, their friends, their community in that “good” direction.
Where things fall apart is when that desire to guide others becomes a desire to control. I don’t think any one person knows or even can know with absolute certainty what is ultimately “good.” And while I do thing we should strive towards some moral standard, it is not our place to force that standard upon anyone. We have laws to protect rights that we “collectively” agree should be granted to every human being, the inalienable rights. I believe strongly that among those inalienable rights is the right make your own choices, regardless of sex, gender, race, or creed. We should live our lives with love and compassion, and leave the judgement to God or whatever gods may be.
nANIMOv 