I’m pro-life, and reasonable, I think
Despite a sarcastic response from many Australians, organiser and director of animal rights documentary, Dominion, Chris Delforce, said there’s a very serious message behind today’s protests.
“The industry is telling people these animals are being killed ethically, that they are being killed humanely — the reality is … it’s the furthest thing from humane,” Mr Delforce told AAP.
Fair enough, he may just be right. It’s great to see people willing to debate lively about animal rights. So with no further ado, I would now like to debate lively with you about my views on the rights of the unborn child, aka abortion.
It’s a shame that people don’t seem to be as willing to debate lively about abortion. Why is that? Is it because thinking about it in terms of the expectant mother’s choice is easier than thinking about it in terms of the act and process, that affects an unborn human being? Surely this is a debate more important than the animal rights debate?
Now before you jump to conclusions about my prolife views, please allow me to elaborate:
1. I oppose Alabama law that would make abortion punishable (punish the woman) by up to 99 years in prison. I oppose any prolife law that would send the woman who chooses abortion to prison. What leads to an abortion event, is often complex, and effectively putting abortion into the same criminal category as murder is simplistic.
2. Straight-up prohibition is bad law and bad public policy. Under the iron law of prohibition, if you try to legally prohibit something, you’ll just drive it underground into the unsafe black market, and that’s a bad social outcome, period. As Tony Abbott once said, abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.
3. I oppose Medicare funding of abortion for non-medical reasons. Medicare funding, coming from taxpayers’ money, should not be used for non-medical treatment. Any public monies for non-medical abortion is better off redirected to funding pregnancy assistance.
4. In Victoria, NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and the NT, it is illegal to offer help to a woman within 150m of an abortion clinic. NSW law goes further: “a person who is in a safe access zone must not make a communication that relates to abortion, by any means, in a matter… that is reasonably likely to cause distress and anxiety”. In other words, these laws are anti-free speech, and any law that restricts freedom of speech (except for exceptional circumstances) is wrong, period.
5. Sidewalk counsellors play a very important compassion and care role for expectant mothers making their way to an abortion clinic, which is the other reason why the 150m exclusion zone laws are bad. Having said that, I despise protesters who harass said mothers making their way to said clinic. They make the prolife cause look bad, but more importantly, harassment is indecent behaviour, and it would be my pleasure to pull them into line if I ever saw them.
6. I believe that human life more or less starts at conception. Conception is the absolute requisite to start human life. If human life is important post-birth, then equally, human life is important pre-birth. To make exceptions for this (except for rare cases of rape, and the rare threat to the mother’s life) is to give the green light to the slippery slope that led to the recent decriminalisation of late-term and at-birth abortions in some US jurisdictions. The line must be drawn objectively.
7. Adoption is a difficult process in Australia, so why not make it less difficult, because you then might see a decline in abortion rates? I would love to adopt/foster, so here’s my challenge, which you can hold me to account for: if an expectant mother approached me about her considering an abortion because she feels she’s not ready yet to raise her child, I would offer to take care of the born child (one child at a time) until she’s ready. Words can be cheap, but I do believe I have it in me to volunteer for such a gift of life. Would you join me for such a challenge? Do you know an expectant mother considering abortion, who would consider my offer?