Friday, January 27, 2017

Non-Religious Reasons: Part 4 - Abortion

Part 3 here

One non-religious reason against safe abortions.

There isn't one. ...because there is no such thing as a "safe" abortion.

Just a refresher (from Google). Abortion: the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy.

Definition of "Pregnant": having a child or other offspring developing in the body.

So, every single abortion is the termination of a developing baby.

"But Luke," you may say, "it's not a baby, it's a fetus."

...which, if you were thinking that, you clearly missed Part 1 of this brief series where you learned that a fetus, by definition, is "an unborn human baby more than eight weeks after conception."

Though you may feel it at the moment, I'm not so thick as to not understand what "safe" means in the original context. It means "safe for the mother." And, yes, if I had to choose between losing two lives over one, I'm utilitarian enough to agree that "safe" is better than "unsafe" ... but such a discussion misses the more important part: The purpose of abortion is to terminate an unborn fetus' life (remember: human baby).

And one of the roles of the government is to protect its citizenry. And while it is true that the unborn do not currently fall under the protected status, anyone who cares about the disenfranchised, the powerless, the voiceless should be demanding that our government do better, be better, and seek to protect the most defenseless.

This is not to say that I do not have incredible sympathy for women in crisis pregnancy situations. We must do better by them (and the Church -- which, I realize has nothing to do with non-religious stuff -- I believe should be at the forefront of that, which is why I'm so proud my church is involved in Alternatives). In fact, some of the most frustrating things for me when I hear about Pro-Choice arguments are all the things that make women in these situations feel like they don't have a choice. Be it churches, boyfriends, their family, or socially, we have repeatedly failed women who need love, support, and care during these horrible situations.

And I'm not even 100% against abortion. I merely think that we should start with the assumption that it's wrong -- like killing anyone -- and allow for the possibility that there may be times when the government has reason to condone such behavior (like in self-defense or national security). Of course, I would urge everyone to be as cautious about that as possible. But, really, that's a totally different topic.

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In conclusion:

Please, at minimum, take two minutes to google a topic before posting about it on social media.

And, if you don't feel like doing that much work yourself, come chat with me and I'd be thrilled talk about these issues. I get it: marriage, research, and health are huge, important, complicated issues filled with all kinds of nuances and twists that make it difficult. I appreciate the difficulties with many of these things and fully recognize where the Church and Christians and I have totally screwed up in these kinds of things. I urge us all to do better, and I know I have much to learn about all this.

But if you are looking for nothing more than one non-religious reason why the government should be concerned, I hope I've helped you out.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester

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