Over Half in U.S. Find Abortion Morally Acceptable


A new Gallop Poll made headlines in the Christian press today. Fifty-two percent of the over 1,000 people polled said abortion is "morally acceptable."

Of course, we can never be sure what people mean be "morally acceptable." T don't think they give it a lot of thought. They just don't see the fetus as a human being but know for certain the women is one.  Pondering over religion and moral minutiae is not something most people do. The fall in Christian numbers reflects this. People tend to focus on the believable and the practical. Treating a few cells as if it were a human being is neither believable nor practical.

I am certain public opinion is turning and will accelerate, not so much in favor of abortion, but against the anti abortion cult. The true intension of this cult to control and prosecute women are only circulating on the periphery of politics and will eventually move center stage. 

Right now, pregnant women or women who have lost fetuses or experienced still births are being sent to jail. They are being prosecuted using current laws. There is a set political people in the anti abortion cult that wants these laws that put pregnant women under the control of the state expanded. This cult has already been successful at expanding the reach of government into women's lives.

From the San Francisco Chronicle we learn that from 1973 to 2005 there were 413 cases of pregnancies prosecuted. From 2006 to 2020 the number grew to 1,330. The expansion of state governments to prosecute pregnant women will jack the number my multiples. A miscarriage or still birth is the fault of the woman and she must pay. The public mostly does not know this is going on. I think public awareness of women going to prison for problem pregnancies will have a dramatic impact on public opinion. It just has not happened yet.  

I know it's risky to suggest parallels but here goes. A large majority of today's public looks back with disgust at actions taken by government in the past that destroyed rights of certain demographic groups. One was slavery and segregation. The other was WWII internment of citizens with Japanese heritage. Taking the civil rights away from women is ultimately identical.  

I know there are political operatives within the anti abortion operation who do not want women prosecuted. These cooler-headed strategists are not in the cult part of anti abortion. The latter acts on emotion and self righteous impulses. At this time, the cult is gaining power over the strategists. 


Comments

  1. Ardy BJune 8, 2022 at 2:21 PM

    Jon, I don’t know. This abortion business is confusing. The Roe v Wade decision seems pretty darn cogent as a solution: Reproductive autonomy for women during the first 12 weeks. If a woman chooses to abort it is to be performed by a licensed doctor in medically safe conditions. Of course the lives of a few licensed doctors were aborted for providing the service, presumably by Right-to-Life’ers, and medically safe conditions are being narrowly defined to intentionally restrict access. During the second trimester, the Court held that a state may regulate abortion if the regulations are reasonably related to — the health of the pregnant person. The third trimester brings protection for the fetus that outweighs the right to privacy of the pregnant women except, except when an abortion is — necessary to save the life or health of the pregnant person.

    Then there’s the heartbeat criterion. It has been demonstrated that a single heart cell can and will spontaneously start to beat and that two heart cells in proximity can synchronize their rhythms. But one heart cell does not a heart make. It is true formation of the heart begins early in embryonic development.
    Four weeks after conception at the phylotypic stage of the embryo, it is “a fluttering of cells within a tube”.

    Then there’s this, “The science shows that based on gestational age, the fetus is not capable of feeling pain until the third trimester," said Kate Connors, a spokesperson for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The third trimester begins at about 27 weeks of pregnancy.

    To my mind Roe v Wade as it stands is a good fit for the reality on the ground. Perhaps I’ll compromise and grant personhood to a third trimester fetus. If it feels pain it’s a person.

    An embryo expelled or evacuated from the uterus at one month completed 1/9 of its journey. A nine year old girl dies suffering multiple gunshot wounds sitting at her desk in school completed 1/9 of her journey. The girl felt pain, the embryo did not. Which one is a person? Which death is morally acceptable?

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    Replies
    1. JonJune 8, 2022 at 3:21 PM

      Ardy B Thanks for the beautiful essay. Just a few minutes before I saw it I was driving near where I live and looked up at a huge bill board. It was two babies and had them saying, "We had a heartbeat at eight days." (Or maybe it was 12 days, don't care.) I said out loud, "What liars. What bull $hit." The lies told by anti abortion are as long as your arm.

      I, too, think the Roe language is quite good. While I have no objection to the Roe language I'm not certain, myself, we need any laws about it since all women and all doctors know a pregnancy is a potential human being. These doctors and women have the same amount of knowledge and wisdom as all of us who are neither. Certainly they have as much as the red faced screaming protestors in front of clinics.

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