On Abortion

In college, both pro-life and pro-choice groups tried to recruit me with unimpressive arguments. I was uninterested. I assumed that debate was a localized phenomenon. I was yet to discover that abortion rights is a global propaganda.

People are misled when they debate abortion laws. Laws don't make anything right or wrong. Since laws can only apply to individuals, they get trapped debating when life begins. This is a rabbit hole they can never get out of. There is no point when life begins just like there is no point when it ends. Beginning and end are both gradual processes linked in a continuum with what was before the beginning and what lies ahead of the end.

However, sometime last year, the truth was revealed to me. Abortion is wrong in all circumstances because it reduces the value of human life. A society where people consider abortion normal is fundamentally savage, no better than a bunch of beasts who eat their own. If humans lost their instinctive inhibition and disgust for abortion, human life would become less valuable than toast. Guess how valuable your life would be if you lived with them? I wouldn't be surprised if people turned cannibalistic. If there is nothing wrong with killing a fetus, what's wrong with eating it? We can push people to do all sorts of savagery by normalizing things they once found extreme and disgusting.

When we kill someone, a part of human conscience dies. Forget someone, why would we even want to chop down a tree unless we absolutely have to? Why would we even destroy an inanimate signpost? Do we want to live in a world where destroying things is considered normal? I want to live in a world where people preserve everything, from natural things like plants and animals to man-made things like books, monuments, and art. If we want to live in that world, we must act accordingly. We must not cause more disturbance than we have to. Even predatory animals don't kill just to kill. They kill either to protect themselves or to eat, which is their role in the food chain.

Some think that abortion is fine if the mother's life is at risk. Wrong. The mother decided to get pregnant. Now, she must face the music. The baby didn't decide to have himself. Thus, he can't be held accountable. She is still welcome to abort the baby but her choice would be morally wrong. The right thing to do is to risk her life to have him and hopefully come out alive on the other side. That's what parents do. They fight for their children, not drop them in the face of difficulty.

Some say it is fine if the woman is a rape victim. Since the baby played no part in the rape, he can't be punished for it. I understand it makes the woman's life much harder, but this is true for victims of any crime. Being a victim doesn't eliminate her moral responsibilities. Here again, she is welcome to abort the baby, but her choice would be morally wrong. Whether she keeps the baby is a test of her character. Whether her neighbours step up to accommodate her is a test of her society. If they don't accommodate her, they would prove themselves morally irresponsible. Such a society will soon meet its ruins. It will be replaced by people who do respect the higher order.

Should abortion be legal or illegal? It really does not matter. Laws don't change how people feel. Law is nothing but an insidious form of tyranny. I don't even suggest legislating reproductive rights. Governments should stay out of it.