UTT - Blog Post 18

Choose one of these to respond to.  You will be graded on the strength of your argument.  Due Monday March 26th at midnight.
1. 
The ability of a woman to have control of her body is critical to civil rights. Take away her reproductive choice and you step onto a slippery slope. If the government can force a woman to continue a pregnancy, what about forcing a woman to use contraception or undergo sterilization?

          Well, I’d like to make two real points here, so let’s look at them one at a time:

       First of all, I’d like to say that once a woman makes the decision to have unprotected relations with a man, she must be ready to accept the consequences. It’s akin to eating ice cream—sure it’s great, but you may gain some weight as a result; that risk is always there, so the consumer has accepted that and is ready to live with the consequences. In the case of the woman, she is accepting that she might get pregnant and must be ready and willing to deal with the consequences (in this case, a child). After all, doesn’t each and every human have the right to life, as well as those of liberty and the pursuit of happiness? So when a woman makes the decision to engage in a situation where she becomes pregnant, the net result is introducing another human being into the world—one with full right to live. And the woman’s “civil rights” do not extend to murder, that will hopefully never be the case. “Reproductive choice” is whether or not to abstain from certain actions—what happens after is not a choice, because that decision was already made.

       At the same time, I would say that the government is not forcing women to have abortions or not have abortions. I believe that the government should not be financing and promoting abortion as a viable “solution” to pregnancies for ethical and moral reasons, not the least of which include that the government is broadcasting its stance on the matter rather than remaining impersonal and impartial like it ought to be. So, I don’t believe it forces women one way or the other, I believe it encourages the “desired solution” that it has decided is the best way to solve the “issues” presented to it; but on the whole, it would be better for the government to be impartial and detached from the issues that it even now fully immerses itself into. So, the issues presented in the question aren’t relevant any more than the “forcing” of a pregnancy is—if the government operates as it ought, this wouldn’t even be an issue.

       So there’s my long-winded answer to the question. The government takes sides right now, which motivates people to claim that it will force the vote to one side or another in an issue. Those problems blossom and becomes flowering trees of discontent and discord which raise questions such as the above—questions that, if the government were working correctly, would never even be brought up.