One Less Myth

Ok, we've previously covered how much science can tell us about when life begins and what that means in the topic of abortion

There is no clear scientific consensus on when a fetus becomes a person. I suspect we will never agree on when that is

When creating laws and public policies, the question is when a fetus gains rights. That has to be based on the ethics of minimizing harm for all parties involved.

Not so fast

Our desire for cognitive closure may lead us to embrace a simple solution like that, but reality is far more complex

There are all sorts of issues that crop up if we just randomly decide that a fetus should have the same rights as a person.

That could mean, for instance, that incarcerating a pregnant person would deprive the fetus of their own freedom, creating a thorny legal challenge. That obviously becomes unworkable in reality

At the heart of this issue is a basic human right. Regardless of anything else, the pregnant person must have the right to refuse to carry a pregnancy to term, for any reason

There are a lot of myths around the idea that a ton of people are getting abortions out of convenience. It's incredibly rare, and even more so the later we get into a pregnancy

And it is still their right to do so. No one else gets to decide what reasons are valid enough, except the person who is pregnant

And there are so many other ethical considerations that come into play when talking about harm reduction

Issues like rape, incest, reproductive coercion, sex trafficking, and cases where pregnancy threatens the life or health of the pregnant person. These are not rare factors unfortunately, especially later in the pregnancy

Great! When it comes to decisions around these issues, it shouldn't come down to whether the law carves out exceptions for each issue. It should be like any other ethical medical decision. It should be a decision made by the person who is pregnant, with medically accurate advice from their physician

And if we as a society want to further reduce harm, we'd recognize how bad social services are for poor single parents

We'd consider the incredible challenges and poverty that a single parent may have to face for the rest of their lives as a result of carrying a pregnancy to term and raising a child.

We'd devote our efforts to strengthening social safety nets

We'd offer free and easy-to-access contraception options for everyone

We'd offer free daycare so that single parents are able to provide for their children

We'd introduce real sex ed classes across the entire nation

We'd require doctors to honor anyone's wishes for surgical contraception if they want it

We'd consider so many other factors than just the ~9 months of gestation.

Evidence-based actions like these have been correlated to reduced numbers of abortions

Unfortunately there is still a push for abortion bans, even though they do not reduce abortions. They only reduce the number of safe abortions performed by trained medical staff

Abortion bans are effective only at rallying religious folks around a political platform. They are rooted in religious extremism