Abortion and Contraception

Let me start with a general statement about religion and government.  I think religions have an obligation to try to influence the behavior of their adherents, and I think most of the time this works for good.  Do they have the right, however, to try to influcnce, let alone control, the behavior of others through law?  When the adherents of a particular relilgion are in the majority, we often see this, and it is seriously wrong in and of itself.

That doesn't mean the law doesn't step in and regulate things that relilgions teach -- the law, to use the obvious example of murder, makes it illegal, and churches endorse this.  I would say that because a religion supports a law does not make the law wrong, but it does make it suspect.

Being male, and a homosexual to boot, I don't have any personal involvement in conception and abortion, so I think I can look at it objectively.  Of course my belief in freedom, basically that anything that restricts individual freedom needs strong and maybe even overwhelming state interest.

There is a magical view of life -- that living things are endowed with some sort of life spirit or soul.  One can understand the emotional responses people have to the idea of preventing or ending a pregnancy if they think that way.  I can only say the view is unscientific, devoid of rational supporting evidence, and in some ways leads to all sorts of impractical results -- such that it is immoral to step on an ant.

What overriding public interest do laws against abortion and contraception achieve?  Stopping the killing of babies, I suppose, but is the foetus a baby?  At some point it becomes a baby (at birth seems to be the general view) and then slowly over the next few years, if not over the next lifetime, it becomes a person.

The criminization of abortion and contraception has some very bad consequences -- back-door abortions, deaths of teenage girls, family disruptions, unwanted children leading to later criminals, and so on.  Offsetting that are the dangers of abortion and the emotional problems to the parents that can happen later.  These need weighing, to be sure, and people need to try to avoid making these things happen.  I would say that it all depends, and, like all moral decisions, no absolute rule should be followed but instead compassion, maximizing good, minimizing harm, and not imposing our will (another way of saying "using") on others.