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Home > My Essays > Defining My Position on Abortion
The first time I thought consciously about the idea of abortion and the pros and cons was in 2001. I heard on the news that one professor had proposed to legalise abortion up to the 27th gestational week. I didn't know the current policy, but 27 weeks was absurd! I was born at 25 weeks, and I viewed myself as a person, even when I was still in the NICU. Babies born at 27 weeks normally survive in NICUs today!
At around the same time, the University of Leiden Medical Centre, which was the only hospital in the Netherlands that treated preemies born before the 25th week gestation, announced it wasn't going to do that anymore, because 30% get learning or social problems later in life. That argument astonished me: healthy, "normal" folks were deciding that a person with a minor disability didn't have the right to live! And a so-called ethicist was proposing that foetuses even at a later gestational age could be killed through abortion!
As I became more interested in prematurity issues and medical ethics in general, I thought over my opinions. I'd always thought I belonged to the progressive and hence to the pro-choice movement, although I found some abortion policies to be far too liberal. In the autumn of 2003, I studied abortion for a project for general sciences, and found out about the Dutch laws: as almost usual, they were among the most liberal in Europe, now (but not yet then) only preceded by the UK. In the Netherlands, a woman can, together with her doctor, decide if she is "in difficult circumstances". If she finds that the only solution to these circumstances is abortion, she can have one performed in a certified clinic or hospital. A woman must, however, wait five days before undergoing the procdure. A provision is made that abortions cannot be performed if the foetus would be viable outside of the womb. This used to mean that an abortion could be performed until the 24th week gestation, but it was recently changed to the 21st week. This policy is very open-minded compared to other countries. Most countries allow abortion only in the first trimester (up to 12 weeks gestation) and have more strict guigelines for determining in what circumstances an abortion is allowed and what procedure the woman must face before the abortion is performed. In the United Kingdom, abortions in general are allowed up to the 24th week gestation, but if the foetus appears to be handicapped, there's no limit to perform an abortion.
I found the Dutch law to be far too liberal: firstly, there are other options for birth control, and secondly, if really the only option were abortion, that shouldn't need to be delayed till the 21st week. I'm not against birth control (on the contrary!), but there are many healthier, safer and morally better alternatives to abortion as birth control. One'd better have good canpaigns about safe sex and birth control and cover birth control methods like the birth control pill in insurance (which here isn't covered for women older than 21) to prevent unwanted pregnancy than to have liberal abortion laws to end unwanted preegnancies.
A lot of the debate about abortion centers around the idea when a foetus is a person. Some people will see personhood as the same thing as life, but some won't. Some may define personhood according to biblical principles. Although abortion is not specifically mentioned in the Bible, there are enough references to think that, if the Bible allows abortion, it's only in the early trimester. For example, in the Old Testament, adulterous women were killed with their unborn child, but one may also say that execution isn't murder (which I personally disagree with). Other references are made to when God would consider a foetus to be a person.
But, of course, there are also many non-biblical factors contributing to the debate. The professor who wanted to allow abortions up to the 27th gestational week, argued that an unborn baby isn't a person until he can think, which is by 30 to 32 weeks. So one could also simply look at developmental stages in a foetus to debate when a foetus is a person.
Then, there's the issue of the method of "treatment". I admit that when women still performed illegal abortions, the risk was much greater for them than now that it's controlled. But for a woman, abortion is often found not to be an easy procedure. I've never undergone one, so I don't speak from first-hand experience here. But one may also consider the child. Okay, he's murdered anyway, but how cruel some methods of abortion are! Especially those performed in the last trimester! I can't see the pictures that some people show around the web, but the idea already is disgusting!
A last thing I feel I need to say is that pro-life is more than to oppose abortion - it is to support life, and to support life includes respecting others' lives, whether these people are "wanted" in your view or not. Therefore, I strongly oppose any form of violence, and this includes abortion-related terrorism and violence. Killing is wrong in any form!
Further informatin on the abortion debate:
Abortion in Law, History & Religion: A resource for information (somewhat leaning towards the pro-choice movement, but info is factual) about abortion in history, abortion laws throughout the world, and religious opinions about
abortion.
Abortion Facts: Abortion facts from the pro-life point of view.
Abortion TV: Another great resource for abortion info from a pro-life perspective.