Abortion vs Right to choose. Which is the right issue?

The abortion controversy is a prime example of how the proponents have tried to win their argument by framing the question as a "women's choice" issue and not the real one of abortion. They do this by getting everyone to focus on the right of women to control their own bodies, to allow a woman to have the right to choose the medical procedures impacting their own bodies, etc. Who could be against these rights when they are framed in this manner.

 

So the begin with, you have to understand that the abortion issue is just that: abortion. It is NOT about a woman's right to choose since a woman's right to choose is if she gets pregnant in the first place.

 

Now before you jump down my throat, let's set aside the red herring that pro-abortionists like to throw out: "what about cases of rape and incest?" OK. Let's take this red herring and put it in the refrigerator for now and we will deal with it once we understand the true issue of abortion. In other words, it is never wise to make policy based on outlying cases. I am not trying to be insensitive, just logical. Rape and incest cases account for less than 1/10 of 1% of the life births in the USA according to the CDC, Atlanta, GA.

 

So the real question is NOT a women's right to choose, but a woman's right to an abortion. The right question to frame the debate is:

 

Do you believe in a woman's right to an abortion?

 

This changes the entire debate from one of a woman's choice to one of a right to an abortion. This is the proper framing of the question since a woman's right to choose is whether to get pregnant in the first place. Discounting rape or incest which I promise we will deal with next, every woman knows who she got pregnant. If she doesn't then she was either raped or the victim of incest. There are not other alternatives. Think about it before you get angry. If a woman doesn't know how one gets pregnant then she is either too young (rape), too mentally-challenged (rape of mentally incapacitated), or she was an incest victim where power and position come into play.

 

In those cases, the issue to conception, pregnancy and birth need different debates, but for the rest of the pregnancies the woman knows that if she has sex, protected or unprotected, she is taking the chance of getting pregnant. That is her choice! The choice to have sex in the first place. Unless one believes in asexual reproduction in humans, a woman can be fairly assured that if she does not have sexual intercourse, she can not get pregnant.

 

We have laws and have prosecuted many man for going beyond a woman's notice of "NO" when it comes to intercourse. Men today know that a woman can say "NO" right up to the point of ejaculation and he has to stop. So let's at least be intellectually honest about a woman's right to choose. It is the right to have sex or not. It is the right to control the access to and/or use of her body that defines the real question.

 

The abortion issue is NOT about choice, but about the right of woman to terminate a life that just happens to be inside her. This then comes down to a point of conception which is dealt with soon. However, don't just accept the debate framed to give the abortionist's an advantage.