Abortion is murder, but that’s a woman’s right(?)
March 13th, 2006 ~ Current eventsAccording to this story, a recent poll is showing that Americans compartmentalize their thoughts on abortion, keeping ideas apart from each other so they don’t have to deal with the fact that they’re ethically and morally incompatible:
A solid majority long have felt that Roe v. Wade should be upheld. Yet most support at least some restrictions on when abortions can be performed. Most think having an abortion should be a personal choice. But they also think it is murder.
“Rock solid in its absolutely contradictory opinions” is how public opinion expert Karlyn Bowman describes the nation’s mind-set.
So pro-choice won and it lost; pro-life won and it lost. Those who aren’t True Believers (of either stripe) are so confused and exhausted they don’t know what to think.
Seems like it’s going to be a long year.
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March 14th, 2006 at 6:58 pm
It’s not a contradictory opinion if one assumes that murder IS a woman’s right. In fact, Adam might have said the same (blaming the fall on Eve). Imagine they are at the end of time instead of the beginning: There are two people left in the whole world and Adam knew he wasn’t responsible (for the death of the rest of the world); well, then it would be Eve’s “fault”. But also assume that “a baby” is the regeneration of the WHOLE world. Then, we might assume that it is a woman’s “right” to murder (so as to “give birth” to the world). Like I said, Adam might surely agree. Though Eve would blame “the devil” … perhaps Adam’s God in such a case — the one who (in light of this view) was trying to keep her from having a child. Hmmm.
March 15th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
Hard to know how people rationalize it. Or at least it’s hard for me to know, and so I guess that they just kind of live in denial with it.
The only Orthodox person I know who’s pro-choice believes that abortion is a necessary evil, and that there are simply too many women that need them as a form of birth control for it to ever be done away with without incurring worse results.