![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
There's a discussion over there about women who abort for birth defects of various sorts, and how some of them have said things such as "I don't want to be with these women who don't want their children, I want this child" (tangent, if you wanted the child, you'd have it. You want a different child. Whether or not the choice is the correct one for you to make, the fact is that you found out you were pregnant and decided, for good or bad reasons, that on the whole you'd rather have a child who was normal/healthy and definitely not THIS child who wasn't.)
Anyway, one person said that "there's no such thing as baby killing and it's horrible that the religious right blames all such abortions on people who want "perfect babies" and abort for minor birth defects". Or something like that, it's not a real quote. So of course, I point out that 1. there are baby killings, infanticide does exist, but infanticide != abortion and 2. as it happens, the number of abortions for minor birth defects such as cleft lip have been going up (if you're curious, I got this either from the BBC or the NYTimes).
Well, now she has to get righteously indignant. Oh, how horrible, how can I possibly say such a thing, is it any of my business why some poor woman had an abortion, and on and on and on.
Look. I didn't fucking SAY it matters why any woman aborts. In fact, I think that whatever your reason for having an abortion, if you don't want a child you shouldn't have it. If you don't want the child because it's going to have blue eyes instead of brown (and let's pretend there's a way to test for it) - it's a stupid reason, sure, and I would understand finding it morally reprehensible, but it's better to abort than to leave the poor kid always knowing his/her parents didn't really want him/her, they wanted a perfect baby.
Don't have children you don't want. I don't care what your reason is for not wanting the kid, don't have children you don't want. You follow that rule, and I'll keep supporting "a woman's right to choose" (which, while I do support it, is as obnoxious a slogan as "a baby's right to life" - I know what the purpose is behind slogans, but I hate phrases that make the other group look like the Bad Guys who are Evil Incarnate and Kick Puppies)
Anyway, one person said that "there's no such thing as baby killing and it's horrible that the religious right blames all such abortions on people who want "perfect babies" and abort for minor birth defects". Or something like that, it's not a real quote. So of course, I point out that 1. there are baby killings, infanticide does exist, but infanticide != abortion and 2. as it happens, the number of abortions for minor birth defects such as cleft lip have been going up (if you're curious, I got this either from the BBC or the NYTimes).
Well, now she has to get righteously indignant. Oh, how horrible, how can I possibly say such a thing, is it any of my business why some poor woman had an abortion, and on and on and on.
Look. I didn't fucking SAY it matters why any woman aborts. In fact, I think that whatever your reason for having an abortion, if you don't want a child you shouldn't have it. If you don't want the child because it's going to have blue eyes instead of brown (and let's pretend there's a way to test for it) - it's a stupid reason, sure, and I would understand finding it morally reprehensible, but it's better to abort than to leave the poor kid always knowing his/her parents didn't really want him/her, they wanted a perfect baby.
Don't have children you don't want. I don't care what your reason is for not wanting the kid, don't have children you don't want. You follow that rule, and I'll keep supporting "a woman's right to choose" (which, while I do support it, is as obnoxious a slogan as "a baby's right to life" - I know what the purpose is behind slogans, but I hate phrases that make the other group look like the Bad Guys who are Evil Incarnate and Kick Puppies)
