Is the abortion issue only about religion?

[Fluffernutter]

I really want to know what people think about the abortion debate. Are pro-lifers only the religious right? Anyone have statistics to show otherwise? What arguements are there for banning abortion that are not motivated by religion?

[relaxxx]

I wrote an essay on it long ago:

The abortion topic strikes a raw nerve with a lot of people, especially those who tend to be highly religious or emotional types. The main issues of abortion seem to revolve around human rights and religious beliefs. Here we will attempt to separate our emotions from the topic and look at this issue as logically as possible. I believe abortion should be an option available to all women. This option should exist without fear of being shunned by family or attacked by society.

We’ve all heard stories about activists bombing abortion clinics, the shooting and killing of doctors and people associated with abortions. These stories did not taking place in the Middle East. They are from here in North America, a place where we pride ourselves on freedoms, such as freedom of religion. Freedom of religion can not exist when ideas and practices from one religion are imposed on all people. When laws are based more on religion and emotions, you can be sure that certain freedoms will be sacrificed.

Abortion is the termination of a Human Being’s life and therefore murder. This is not true, the Pregnant woman is the only human being in the picture. The brain of a human being takes years to develop, this is a medical and scientific fact. Our minds are what make us an individual person with all of our thoughts and dreams. We are not preset, predetermined beings, we are products of years of development. You can’t sell a blank canvas as a masterpiece just because it could be a masterpiece some time in the future. And you can’t charge a person for murder of a human being that could have existed some time in the future.

If you do believe that some higher power has predetermined all life, then you must believe that this higher power has predetermined three quarters of human beings on this planet to exist, starve and suffer in miserable poverty. So who it the real monster, the abortion doctor or your God? There is absolutely no logic in bringing an unwanted human being into this world of starving beings. To force parenthood on an unwilling person will only produce more misery and abuse in a world already filled to the brim with misery and abuse.

Every pregnancy has it’s own story. Conceived from love, rape or foolish mistake, children should be wanted and loved. They should not be used as punishment for mistakes or reminders of painful experiences. Giving up a child is not easy, it can be enough to break a person. We should not look at abortion as the act of terminating a human life. We should look at abortion as a tool that is sometimes necessary to avoid adding misery and abuse to a human who is already “being”.

[bustramp]

Go over to the Protest forum click on the Abortion thread, it's a pretty hot debate going on with all that stuff you're asking about.



Bustramphttp://www.hipgallery.com/photopost2/data/500/bus8.jpg

[sentient]

I really want to know what people think about the abortion debate. Are pro-lifers only the religious right? Anyone have statistics to show otherwise? What arguements are there for banning abortion that are not motivated by religion?
find work by Judith Jarvis thompson - she is not exactly pro abortion but not exactly pro life - she leans more toward pro abortion but she is anyway a very educated, highly original, and talended thinker. Her arguments put all the pro life aspects into perspective
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Jarvis_Thomson

you might also want to read perhaps the most significant book (its in paperback ) on the subject of abortion - its called "causing death and saving lives" By Jonathan Glover
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Glover
the book succinctly, and simply gives the arguments for and against abortion. He does this by highlighting several prominent thinkers from all sides of the debate - you will find what you are looking for there

[tubahead]

If you read Don Marquis's argument against abortion in "why abortion is immoral" you can see a view against abortion that is definately not religious. His whole argument attempts to argue without appealing the whole idea that abortion is wrong because fetuses have the potential to become human. Whether or not he actually accomplishes this is still up in the air

[relaxxx]

precisely why some sexually retarded religious fanatics believe masturbating or birth control is a sin. "potential" is meaningless, real valuable human life takes years of effort, devotion and development. That's what makes a person, not a 30 second shot, not even 2 weeks of cell multiplication. A worthless fly has more self awareness.

the whole concept of human brain development and the many years it takes conflicts with the whole religious concept of spirits. If our minds are spirits why should it take 3 years to complete the wiring of 100 billion neurons inside a persons brain?

[Pepopstico]

for many people the abortion debate is really about their conflicted views of sexuality. much of the intense anger is coming from repressed anger at the what they consider the sexual freedom of others resulting in an unwanted pregnancy, and abortion represents the slut getting away with it. religion may be their rationalization so they don't have to face their irrational emotions.
Some pro-lifers do have consistant religious objections, but these aren't the people expressing rage and bombing clinics.

[iris rotation]

I really want to know what people think about the abortion debate. Are pro-lifers only the religious right? Anyone have statistics to show otherwise? What arguements are there for banning abortion that are not motivated by religion?a lot of it coming from the religious side is hypocrisy. they go on about the rights of the unborn and then send their warplanes to bomb children in Iraq and Somalia.
I agree with the poster above who said


for many people the abortion debate is really about their conflicted views of sexuality. much of the intense anger is coming from repressed anger at the what they consider the sexual freedom of others resulting in an unwanted pregnancy, and abortion represents the slut getting away with it. religion may be their rationalization so they don't have to face their irrational emotions.


only thing I'd say is that the rationalization is itself another level of irrationality.

[Kaiser 4 Sunflowers]

Life is beautiful and we should cherish it no matter what it's the result of.

[Mirakel]

precisely why some sexually retarded religious fanatics believe masturbating or birth control is a sin. "potential" is meaningless, real valuable human life takes years of effort, devotion and development. That's what makes a person, not a 30 second shot, not even 2 weeks of cell multiplication. A worthless fly has more self awareness.

the whole concept of human brain development and the many years it takes conflicts with the whole religious concept of spirits. If our minds are spirits why should it take 3 years to complete the wiring of 100 billion neurons inside a persons brain?

firstly, if self-awareness is what determines value, then we might as well kill all children under one year of age, the very old and senile, and the mentally retarded. in a word: those who are not self-aware. secondly, no one claims that the mind is a spirit. i don't know where the heck you got that from, cause if you went insane, you'd have a defective spirit, and i don't even want to go into that now. the spirit is human life. intrinsic, essential, human life. self-awareness doesn't come into it at all.

[3xi]

abortion is a bunch of crazy monkeys with knives!!!


(i am not at all religious!)

[emsterino]

I think it would be more immoral to just give unwanted babies up for adoption... I was on an abortion debate board on a different site a while ago and this pro-life chick quoted that if there wasnt any abortions, there woluld have been 45 million babies 'saved'. If that source was correct, thats more than half the US population! There would be that much unwanted childeren in orphanages and foster homes, and thats not all that moral. I think we should care more about the childeren allready here. But it seems like the religious people only think about the unborn... I have seen some young kids say they are against abortion, and they even admit that they dont know much about it, but they say its wrong just because they are told to by their preists..

[Pressed_Rat]

I am against abortion and I am by no means religious. I have simply studied the history of the abortion movement and the people behind it, and I know what it's really about. It's not about a woman's right to choose, but that's how these malthusian cretins will sell it to the public so it will be accepted in a positive light. If you look at the history of those behind the abortion movement, they were all pro-eugenics. Margaret Sanger's racist views were not far off from Hitler's if you actually do the research instead of buying into the media talking points which serve only to condition you.

[heywood floyd]

No offense, but why, in your view, is abortion confined to only the context of eugenics?

I can see why some eugenics advocates would want to promote abortion, but on the other hand, that doesn't mean that we should dismiss it simply because some people who believed in something we consider horrific nowadays believed in it.

The problem with abortion is that it applies to so many different individual contexts that it's impossible to rule it out as wrong and evil and at the same time impossible to completely accept it as something we should be doing.

Of course, no one is really pro-abortion... they say 'pro-choice'. The argument isn't about whether abortion is a good thing or not, it's always horrible. The argument is whether or not a woman should be trusted to have a good reason for aborting her baby.

[CrazybutLazy]

I am against abortion and I am by no means religious. I have simply studied the history of the abortion movement and the people behind it, and I know what it's really about. It's not about a woman's right to choose, but that's how these malthusian cretins will sell it to the public so it will be accepted in a positive light. If you look at the history of those behind the abortion movement, they were all pro-eugenics. Margaret Sanger's racist views were not far off from Hitler's if you actually do the research instead of buying into the media talking points which serve only to condition you.I don't think all your opinions on issues like abortion should be based entirely on whether or not the issue is designed as part of a government agenda. I would like women to have the right to abortion while we fight the New World Order. Even if the abortion issue isn't really about a woman's choice, it is still a valid point to be considered.