Jill has a tremendous post about how abortion is in fact a moral good. Once you think it through, it’s fairly easy. Abortion is a beneficial medical procedure that removes something that is often a health risk; childbirth is as a rule more dangerous than safe abortion. As Jill notes,
Some on the Pandagon thread argue that procedures like heart surgery are morally neutral. I don’t think so. Having access to that surgery in the first place is a moral good. Deciding to take the course of action that is best for you is a moral good. That’s true whether the issue is terminating a pregnancy or fighting cancer.
The act of heart surgery is of course morally neutral. A person’s choice to have a heart surgery, or for that matter an abortion, isn’t a moral question because it doesn’t impact any other person. As Jill says, the good comes from the fact that this option is available. And conversely, the moral evil in abortion legislation comes from people who pass laws that cause the maternal mortality rates to skyrocket.
Abstract Nonsense 
Ahh, so this is where you blog, is it? I’ll be a fascinated, regular reader for some time, then. I was always rather neutral on the notion that personhood apply to a foetus. In fact, I was rather neutral on the moral value of abortion, although leaning more to moral good.
I tend to think that such values can only be determined alongside the assessment of abortion’s benefit to society. I agree that an increase in maternal mortality is a negative. At the same time, the degree of benefit to be brought by unwanted children being reared is more of an unknown to me. I’ve not researched the topic thoroughly, though I admit to personal bias to the extent that I believe the act of rearing a child while knowingly impaired of your ability to do so to is a moral wrong.
If I’m going to raise a child, I’m going to give it a life worthy of my own potential. It is for this reason that I support abortion’s use.
Also, since 18,000 children die every day from hunger, abortion can be good. It’s nicer to die as painless embryo than a starving child.
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I am only 16 though i have been researching abortion for an assignment at school. I am very sorry though i am going to have to disagree with you. I have always been against aborting children though looking into the means of aborting children i must say i do not see how anybody can perform such a grave act. ONLY 3% OF ABORTIONS ARE DUE TO RAPE OF INSEST. Honestly so many families are in this world are unable to conceive a child. Why would you kill an innocent soul when you could give it life and make help a couple make a family? Not only this though it is against all religion and is morally wrong. Would you kill your 6 year old daughter or you teenage son because you have been faced with being a single parent? This situation is no different to killing a child still in your womb, the womb was made to be a place of life, not death. Ask yourself one thing: Aren’t you glad your mother did not choose abortion? There’s no sane person alive that would say “I wish my mom would have chosen abortion for me! or my brother, or my sister, or my grand child or my niece or my nephew, or my son or my daughter.” Just remember WHO ARE YOU TERMINATING? your son, your daughter, your brother, your sister, your cousin, your friend, your husband, or your wife! YOU HAVE HAD A CHANCE TO LIVE AND MAKE CHOICES; your child deserves a chance to live and make choices.
Hey girl im with you i very strong to say im AGAINST ABORTION
What a LIE! the incestuous rape that impregnated me was never reported. My parents OWNED me and never let the truth be known. This is the REPUBLICAN & EVANGELICAL dirty little secret, their priests rape kids and get away with it. Get a reality check, your statistics are stacked because SHAME promotes hiding the truth. I did not ask to be pregnant, it was forced on me. ABORTION SAVED MY LIFE, and I will always protect a woman’s right to terminate the uninvited, unwelcome, unwanted parasite fetus of a rapist, within. You are a woman hater.
Wait…I’m confused by something…you say “My parents owned me and never let the truth be known” Sounds like you are really upset about someone controlling your life. Do you realize the hypocrisy of your comment? You could not have exerted more control over your child–you killed him/her. You owned her to the extreme; you controlled her life to the point of death. 2nd: Serene’s statistics are fairly accurate, in fact they are a little high, most abortions (over 70%) are performed for “lifestyle convenience” reasons, less than 1% are performed for rape or incest. 3rd: Your parents would not let you tell anyone about your rape/incest, but you were autonomous enough to find an abortion clinic, drive to it, pay for it, and I assume talk to the doctor there about your rape/incest. Your story doesn’t add up to me. Be more clear. Also, reality check, not all prolife people are republic, evangelical or priests. Why would the motivation for Molly’s comments be shame? What does she have to hide? Doesn’t sound like she is carrying around any baggage to me. You, however, sound like you have a lot of unresolved issues; and that anger is your motivation for commenting.
abortion is wrong!why would you evern want to kill a baby without it even seeing the world. you should think about if you are going to get pregant. don’t have sex if you don’t want to have a child. even if you do have pertection you should think about what could happen. something could go wrong. if you get pregant than have the baby. you have to pay a lot of money to have this done. going through the pain can be tough but think about how loving the child will be. SO WHAT I AM TRYING TO SAY IS DON’T GET AN ABORTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
abortion is wrong!why would you even want to kill a baby without seeing the world. you should think about it if you are going to have a baby.don’t want to have a baby don’t have sex. even if you have portection you should think about what could happen.SO WHAT I AM TRYING TO SAY IS:DON’T HAVE ABORTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think abortion is good for women, who do not want a child. With the earth’s overpopulation and crime… why should an unwanted child be had, then given up for adoption, only to have limited resources, and an unhappy life. If you want the child, raise it, or else get an abortion, and save the child from the misery of knowing it was never wanted. What about the women who NEVER want children… should they not be aloud to fall inlove, and be forced to be alone? Or just go gay… oops I forgot… homosexuality is considered bad as well… a sin? A Woman Is Not A Uterus On Legs. She should nt have to bear an unwanted child, as MEN do not have to worry about anything more than child support. DON’T have sex? Please you child… do not speak of things when you know nothing of love or marriadge.
Ironic, your name is Hope. And yet you’re all for snuffing out innocent lives that have no choice in the matter. I see you’re also a femnazi. You people irritate me.
Casey must be a man. One that was never raped and impregnated by his father. Maybe he doesn’t even have type 1 diabetes, asthma, and a heart condition. PREGANCY KILLS young INNOCENT women like me. Your hatred of me and your support for propagating incestuous rapists is noted. If abortion is illegal in the USA, young girls, like myself, will still go to dirty, back alleys in Mexico to abort the deadly parasite within. Thank You for exposing your hatred of women who own claim their own bodies. You likely have sex slaves too. Good luck with hurting women, keep on trying, we will not submit to you.
The anti’s have a right to there opinion but not to enforce it.
A woman is the first and foremost one that gets to decides what happens to her life and since no one knows when life really occurs nor how to actually define by truly nonobjective means, it’s only an opinion based on religiosity trying to trump an individual’s rights to live their own, good or bad, with all the responsibilities and consequences.
Adoption would be great if the bureaucracy wasn’t so bad and if it wasn’t only females that get stigmatized if they don’t want to keep a child. The males hardly ever do ( unless they forced into being a parent by a partner that does want the child and he doesn’t- isn’t that selfish too? Or “cherry picking” on the hypocrisy?) and that should change.
It is not selfish to have an abortion any more than it is to have a child that will be a burden on the social welfare/health care system. It is simply that one woman’s choice.
I have always supported abortion and always will, for myself and any others that will want and/or seek it for whatever reasons may be.
[…] I can say is Quinn must not get out much. She should check out Internet denizens such as Feministe, Abstract Nonsense, Majikthise, Da Po’ Boy, former John Edwards staffer Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon (original […]
The fact that people are killing babies, or “cells” a people like to put it, doenst really bother me, it bothers me that people dont practice self-control and would often run to abortion as the answer.
to the longer abortion is legalized, the more people will not practice being responsible for their own actions. okay for example. if a boyfriend got his girlfriend pregnant, its like their minds are set to say “its okay, the abortion clinic is down the street, all we need is a hot needle to solve the problem”
if people dont want to have a baby or are not ready for one, what is so hard about keeping you freken legs closed!!!! and it doesnt make sense that a dumb woman would go into the clinic and risk being barren for the rest of her life just to get rid ONE baby thats trying to live.
i would rather abortion clinics be closed and let the woman abort the baby herself, i’d rather she live with the guilt of getting rid of it herself. like i said, people need to practice self control. i’m sure sex is not ALL that.
Suck my Kiss.
(OPINION) I believe that under different circumstances abortion is an okay thing to do. Lets say you have been raped and been left to die and then somebody finds you and saves your life and tells you that you’re pregnant? What would you do? Give birth to a baby that has been done by harm not love? OK, if you dont agree with that one then how about you have 2 kids at home and a husband and you get pregnant by accident and the doctor says that when you go to give birth you are going to die, what would you do then? If this was me then I would deffinitely get an abortion because I thought of what that child would go through. The other 2 children will be resentful towards that child and tell him/her that they killed mom. And if this was me, I would want to see my children grow up and graduate and not die. Wouldn’t you, do you think it’s fair to your family at home to do that to them and leave them with a newborn and no mother? NO.. I am totally against that. Now that is mean. OK if you listened to that then listen to this; we have people out there that get into car wrecks and end up living on life support and we decide it’s ok to pull the plug and end their life but it’s completely wrong to get an abortion? What’s up with that? I am for abortion under some circumstances but if you are a teenager or somebody who gets pregnant and doesn’t want to have to deal with a child and not in any serious pain then you shouldn’t get an abortion because that’s mean. I am against people using abortion as a form of birth control. Thank you for letting me leave this comment. There is my judgement on abortion.
Abortion is in fact murder. When you take away a life, wether it is in the womb or not, it is murder. If a woman gets pregnant, and she knew what she was getting into when the baby was conceived,it is her full responsibility to birth that child and either find a home for it or make a home for it. In those few cases that a woman may be raped, why not keep the baby? No one will be upset or think that she is bad. They will, in fact, sympathize. The woman then can put it up for ADOPTION. ADOPTION is in fact the million dollar word in this argument. I believe that the movie Juno is an excellent example of this. The girl, Juno, becomes pregnant and decided against abortion. She then meets a family, and, although the family goes through turmoil, the child is born and adopted by the mother. The child is NOT aborted. Aborting a child is the farthest thing from a ‘moral good’. If you consider killing a child before they even witnessed the world a ‘moral good’ you are kidding yourself. Are you, infact, a supporter of murder also? Ponder that dear elementary.
I agree with Jane to a certain level. Yes, if a person becomes pregnant on accident and dosent want to deal with the baby, then they better get over it and have the baby. Also, as said before, if there are fatal risks toward you or the baby, it is better to get the baby aborted. Also, if abortion was made illegal, women who accidentaly become pregnant and do not want their baby (teenagers for the most part) would find other, extremely harmful ways to abort the baby instead. I read a true story about a young girl who became pregnant and could not afford to abort the baby and did not have health insurance. She decided to try to kill the baby by pounding her stomach with different items. The girl ended up dying from internal bleeding, and the baby, ofcoarse, died. In this case, abortion, escpecially inexpensive abortion, would be a good thing.
Abortion is a matter of personal choice. At this point in my life I picture a cute little puppy whenever I think of abortion, so I couldn’t, but something may happen to change my mind. Also, in the recent case of the south american girl who was pregnant with twins, the pregnancy was life-threatening. It is up to the individual!
ok… let me start off by saying abortion can never be good. abortion is murder. the woman that is having the baby does not have the right to kill it. the baby has a heart beat at 21 days after fertilization. how can you say the baby is not a human, or alive. God says in the bible that, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. God knew you before you were in the womb. it is legal to have abortion in 50 states, but illegal to murder someone in all 50 states as well. whats the difference? ABORTION= MURDER. check out “The Hard Truth” on youtube, then lets see if abortion is still okay to do.
First of all abortion is NOT murder. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary murder has two meanings: 1.the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought
2. a: something very difficult or dangerous b: something outrageous or blameworthy
YOU SEE? ABORTION IS LEGAL THEREFORE IT IS NOT THE UNLAWFUL KILLING OF A PERSON(AND CERTAINLY NO MALICIOUS AFORETHOUGHT.) Abortion is a necessity.
Are you aware that abortion kills 3 MILLION babies every year? Do you know the ways to carry out an abortion? 1.A “doctor” inserts a knife into the womb and slices up the baby, then vacumes it’s body out. 2. A doctor pulls just the head out (this is for late term abortions) and smashes a hole in the skull with surgical scissors, then vacumes the sculls lining out so that the skull collapses. 3.A high-salinity solution is injected into the baby. This causes the baby to convulse in pain for over an hour until finally all it’s skin is burned off. Also, doesn’t the constitution gurantee the right to LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
I’m 16. I belive that this is very wrong. You think that killing babies in the womb is better than ‘letting them die from hunger’. So you’re saying either way they’re going to die, right? Then why not give the baby the chance to live? They could be an important person that you choose to murder because “it’ll kill thim when they’re helpless” EVERYONE IS GOING TO DIE, why don’t we ALL ABORT EVERYONE cuz they’re going to die anyway!!!! yay. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. That’s not MORALLY correct. Sorry I just feel strongly about this.
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My names Chris, I’m 19 and I was an unplanned child. My birth mother who I dont know yet was given a tough choice: either abort me and kill me or give me up to a family who was ready for a baby and would take care of it as best they can. I love my family very much and my 2 sisters, they love me and support me everyday, and i am grateful. I thank God everyday for giving me the chance of life and for my birth mother for not killing me. So just think about what you say on this topic, you dont know who was raped or who was forced into having a child, planned or unplanned. I wouldnt be here posting this if I was aborted
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I am 15 and I dont know why u would be having sex in the first plase. (Unless your married) Why not just suffer for some mouths than distroy a hole life and or even your from difficoltes or dipretion. Plus if its not a baby then your not pregnent.
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