bobr (02/15/83)
From utzoo!watmath!cbostrum Sun Feb 13 15:07:51 1983
Larry Kaufman claims that states not funding abortions is an implicit
admission on their part that it is okay for the rich to have abortions
but not "those who need it most" (contentious), the poor.
This is obviously not so. To give another example, the fact that a state
does not make people rich by giving them huge gifts of money
("money on demand" rather than "abortion on demand") does not mean that
it is not okay to be rich. It just means you have to do it under your
own steam. Sheesh!
Equating "abortion on demand" with "money on demand" shows, in my
opinion, an extremely simplistic approach to a complicated problem
which DOES involve (dare I say it) moral VALUES even if Mr cbostrum
does not want to realize this.
I've seen a lot of strongly expressed ``intellectual'' convictions in
the abortion debate; I've also seen a fair amount of what looked to me
like overblown emotionalism a la ``having legalized abortion is worse
than Nazi Germany's holocaust. What I've seen little of but would be
very interested in finding out about is how fellow netters feel about
abortion in their own, human, ``emotional'', down to earth way.
In other words, what does it feel like to be the woman for whom
abortion is a potential alternative (i.e. you're possibly, unexpectedly
pregnant). What does it feel like to be this woman's lover, sibling,
parent, shrink, good friend ??
If you are in a relationship right now but the thought of both of you
living together for a long time and raising a kid "does not seem right"
(for whatever reason) what would you do, think, and feel like in the
case of a pregnancy ??
To put in my few cents worth: Neither my girlfriend nor I are in any way
able to make the commitment (to each other and to a child) necessary
for parenting. Actually, both our lives are *very much* in transition
at this moment. Nonetheless, I think the intellectual-moral-emotional
decision pro or con an abortion would be really tough.
Christoph Bobrowski Dept. of Computer Science, Toronto