re: #152 DaddyG

You can’t legislate morality.

I take an atypical position among those who share my faith that abortion should not be made illegal in particular in early stages of pregnancy.

I’ve known several women who have been touched by abortion and most have struggled with the decision and the aftermath. However, you cannot force people to act according to your moral code. You can exhort, teach, provide support and alternatives and hopefully be an example.

I hold that it is a horrible thing and a measure of last resort but understandable in cases of incest, rape or the mother’s health being at risk. Having said that it is a moral choice and thus not easily dictated or defined by law.

I agree with the ideas behind what you said, hence the upding, but I think there’s much more going on, sadly.

We can exhort and teach and all that, but unfortunately what I’ve seen is exhorts turn into indictments of that person, teaching turn into making examples of that person, support being taken away for making the wrong choice, and alternatives being shoved at people in the guise of forced counseling, of multi day waiting periods, of being made to read about the potential alternatives and all the things that could happen.

In Georgia, there are 3 counties out of 162 that have any clinics that provide abortions (Atlanta, Savannah, and Columbus). If you live outside those areas, you’re going to have to take a very long drive, then come back another day to actually have the abortion, and you can’t exactly drive yourself home after an abortion. So you need a taxi or someone to drive you. There are no overnight stays in an abortion clinic (that I’m aware of).

Abortions are difficult enough and traumatic enough, let alone making it even harder and making someone suffer more, just to make it clear how much people frown on someone for having one.

As a total aside there’s a group that will justify outlawing abortion for all circumstances, including rape or incest or any other reason. We have a GA state congressman on record claiming that no one can get pregnant from rape, therefore all women who are pregnant must not have been raped and therefore there shouldn’t be an exemption for rape since it’s impossible to be raped and get pregnant.