Procruste's Magical Bed
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From time to time I take time to comment on articles in on-line newspapers such as the Washington Post. Abortion is one of the topics where I usually end up in a back and forth discussion with someone that goes by pseudonym, “GentlySmilingJaws.” She is a passionate supporter of the right to abortion and her main arguments come to down these convictions:
A woman cannot be fully autonomous or free if she does not have complete control over her own body. Forced pregnancy is enslavement.
Sex is intended for either pleasure, intimate bonding of two committed couples OR (not AND) creating life. There is no responsibility for the naturally designed consequences of sex. You choose to have sex without consequences and then whether or not to remain pregnant afterward.
The baby does not become living or human until she or he exits the birth canal, so there is no other living human being involved in an abortion decision and abortion does not end the life of a real living human being but only a potential human being.
Even if there were another living human being involved, no one has the right to force themselves on a woman to use her body, and the woman's right to control her own body is superior to the rights or life of someone using her body – similar to forced organ donation. The idea that there is some responsibility for making the original decision to create a life that would be dependent is unreasonable.
A woman cannot be fully autonomous or free if she does not have complete control over her own body. Forced pregnancy is enslavement.
Sex is not intended for both intimate bonding of two committed couples AND creating life. Sex is for pleasure and there is no responsibility for the naturally designed consequences of sex. You choose to have sex without consequences and whether or not to remain pregnant afterward.
The baby does not become living or human until she or he exits the birth canal, so there is no other living human being involved in an abortion.
Even if there were another living human being involved, no one has the right to force themselves on a woman to use her body, and the woman's right to control her own body is superior to the rights or life of someone using her body – similar to forced organ donation.