Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Hate Compulsory Pregnancy? Try Compulsory Death!

I've noticed in the past year that many feminists have tried to paint pro-lifers as favouring "compulsory pregnancy".

I don't think the "compulsory pregnancy" language is going to fly in the general public for a couple of reasons.

The feminists make it sound like we fetal rights proponents are sending women back to school to take a "compulsory pregnancy" course, or that we're artificially inseminating them and MAKING them pregnant (or worse, raping them!).

It's a bit like white supremacists complaining of the "compulsory emancipation" of black slaves.

The reality is very far from the actual language.

If women are pregnant, in the vast majority of cases, it's because they engaged in actions that led to their pregnancy. You might object that most used birth control and didn't want pregnancy. True.

But when people engage in an activity with a foreseeable consequence, they can't complain about that consequence and whine that others have an obligation to sympathize with them. Take for instance hockey players. Hockey players take all kinds of precautions to stop from getting injured.

But they get injured anyway.

Would you sympathize with a hockey player who always complained about getting injured or being injured, or about the game leading to injuries?

Most people would say: what a crybaby. Play in a league with less aggression, or stop playing altogether.

In the same way: women who engage in sexual intercourse and expect to be exempted from pregnancy are setting themselves up for disappointment, even with birth control. Sex, even with birth control, can lead to pregnancy.

But you might say: an injury needs to be treated. Why shouldn't a pregnancy be dealt with in the same way?

Why? Because a pregnancy is not an injury or a disease. A woman who is pregnant has a functioning--read healthy-- reproductive system. She doesn't "need" a doctor to get rid of it. A fetus is not a wart.

The most compelling reason why the "compulsory pregnancy" language will backfire is that even if one admitted that "compulsory pregnancy" were an evil, the alternative is worse:

The compulsory death of the fetus.

The fetus has no choice in this matter. Feminists say that the conflict of maternal rights with fetal rights should mean that women's rights trump.

Why? Since when does anyone's personal comfort or suffering justify the killing of an innocent?

If another born human being makes trouble for you in any way, we do not kill them, unless they are about to kill us.

So why should it be that way for the unborn child?

Because it's inconvenient for women?

That's not a sufficient reason.

See, the whole so-called abortion debate comes down to the value of the fetus: is the fetus an equal or not? If not, then by all means, keep legalized abortion. But if he is an equal, then he deserves the same consideration as all born people.