Cynthia Jeub: 5 Myths About Abortion

NJO: Source: Cynthia Jeub's blog.

Note: this post is written with the utmost respect for people with differing opinions. The comments section is open to discussion, and I hope you appreciate my desire to build common ground. Please read this post to see where these comments come from.

Yesterday, I posted about my experience with the organization Justice for All, which travels to college campuses around the country to inform people about the abortion issue. Here are some selections from the comments asking about my stance, and my responses.

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Myth five: Criminalizing abortion would force it onto the black market, where people are at a greater risk of death from attempted abortions.

“K” went on to say:

Personally I am pro choice, even though I personally would not have an abortion, because of how before abortion was made legal, many pregnant women would die from trying to abort by themselves in unsafe situations.

As mentioned in my last point, abortions aren’t proven as a safe procedure right now. The fact that abortions move to the black market when they are made illegal doesn’t convince me to make it legal. As I explained to a good friend who is pro-choice recently, I think of abortion as the murder of a child. This is my own opinion, but you’re welcome to challenge me and we’ll discuss it openly.

Because I see it as murder, I think it’s better as a criminalized activity that happens in alleyways than as a legal, respected but controversial decision. Right now, murder happens in back alleyways often, but at least we’re treating it as a crime, instead of legalizing it.

As a last note, I’m surprised by how all the people I’ve talked to about this say they are pro-choice, but that they would never have an abortion themselves. I challenged a classmate about this stance at the beginning of the semester, by suggesting that she would never commit murder, but thought it would be fine if someone else did. She replied that she didn’t think abortion was murder. Perhaps, in the end, that is the real question: is abortion murder? And if it isn’t, why do pro-choice people insist they would never do it? Why is it considered an necessary evil if there’s nothing wrong with abortion?

NJO: Whole post at Cynthia Jeub's blog.