[aageneral] Abortion: Pros and Cons

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Title: Abortion: Pros and Cons
Author: Jan A. Larson
Word count: 804
Copyright: (c) 2005 All rights reserved.

Abortion: Pros and Cons

By Jan A. Larson

With the resignation of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor from the
Supreme Court, both sides in the abortion debate are jockeying
for position in an attempt to influence the selection of
O'Connor's replacement.

The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision is arguably the most
controversial decision ever handed down by the Court.
Supporters are wringing their hands that a shift in the court
might result in Roe being overturned. Opponents are hoping for
just that.

This missive is an attempt, feeble as it may be, to cut through the
rhetoric on both sides of this debate and discuss this issue from
an analytical viewpoint.

The term abortion, as used here, refers only to those abortions
that do not involve pregnancies resulting from rape, incest, etc.
or are performed in order to save a woman's life.

I refer to those that wish to maintain the status quo as "pro-Roe"
and not "pro-choice." I find that term diminishes the gravity of
the issue, reducing it to nothing more than a decision akin to
plain or peanut. Of course, that is what supporters of that
position prefer � promoting the notion that the decision to abort
a pregnancy is no different than choosing a flavor of ice cream.

Likewise, I will refer to the "pro-life" position as "anti-Roe" as I
honestly do not believe anyone is anti-life. I also assert that the
anti-Roe side does a disservice to their cause when referring to
the other side as "pro-abortion." I will offer that none but the
most insensitive, when faced with the decision, eagerly seek to
have an abortion. Having no first-hand experience, I can only
surmise that doing just about anything would be preferable to a
visit to a clinic for the purposes of an abortion.

Just what are the pros and cons of legalized abortion? There are
of course many cons, paramount of which is the death of a
human being before he or she can draw first breath.

The pro-Roe supporters argue that a "fetus" is not a human
being. This basically comes down to semantics, but I will point
out that every one of those supporters was also a fetus at one
point in time.

There is also little doubt that most women that have abortions,
again other than the most selfish and callous, eventually suffer
emotional repercussions. Their lives are forever changed. Two
lives (at least) are negatively affected by every abortion.

Are there positives to legalized abortion?

The pro-Roe position is that legalized abortion gives women
control over the reproductive decision and fear that a reversal of
Roe v. Wade would restrict the right of a woman to choose when
she has a child. The problem with this position is that women
had the right and ability to choose long before Roe and continue
to have that right today. That "choice" is made several months
before a woman is faced with the prospect of an abortion, if you
know what I mean. Legalized abortion allows a "mistake" that
could have been avoided in the first place, to simply be wiped
away. No fuss, no muss.

In the book Freakonomics, economist Steven D. Levitt makes
the case that the legalization of abortion beginning in 1973 has a
very strong statistical correlation and may explain the dramatic
drop in crime rates in the 1990s.

Levitt cites studies that indicate that the women most likely to
have abortions post-Roe were the women least likely to be able
to provide a secure home environment for a child. It is children
that grow up in such environments that are most likely to turn to
a life of crime.

Levitt's analysis, however, concludes that even if one could
assign a value of 100 fetuses to equal the value of one newborn,
the annual "cost" of legalized abortion is 15,000 lives, far more
than the number of homicides "saved" by legalized abortion.

On balance, it would seem that the loss of life and the emotional
scars carried by women (and their families) that have abortions
outweigh the benefits of reduced crime (if there is a direct cause
and effect) and the convenience of "cleaning up a mess" of a
poor decision.

For all the rhetoric and hyperbole on both sides of this issue,
there can never be a middle ground to the abortion debate.
Those that believe that abortion is murder will never believe
otherwise. Those that believe that having an abortion is a
woman's "right" and that a "fetus" is just tissue aren't likely to
change their views either, at least not until it is too late.

While it is undeniably true that many aborted babies would not
be born into situations conducive to a full and productive life,
the bottom line is that a society, such as ours, that values life is
diminished when life may be terminated so easily.

-----
Jan A. Larson publishes a weekly commentary, "What is the
Deal?" at the Pie of Knowledge
(http://www.pieofknowledge.com). His work also appears on
NewsBull (http://www.newsbull.com), OpinionEditorials
(http://www.opinioneditorials.com), American Daily
(http://www.americandaily.com), ChronWatch
(http://www.chronwatch.com) and The Conservative Voice
(http://www.theconservativevoice.com).

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