I'm not going to link the post or the reply because I don't want some of my social media friends going there and attacking, and I know that some of them might.
But I posted this as a response to a question on my support of anti-abortion laws:
I was in my mid-teens when Roe vs. Wade was handed down. I have indeed considered the question rather carefully in the intervening time.
At the time, space flight was a common memetic topic, and the allegory of the abort sequence for rocket launches stuck in my mind -- there was an abort module that could carry the crew capsule off an exploding or otherwise failing main engine, far enough away that the main parachutes could be deployed and the capsule hopefully brought somewhat safely back to ground, or, rather, to the sea.
But the abort sequence was itself inherently dangerous, something that nobody wanted to use, because the chances of surviving the abort sequence were significantly better than the zero chance of the failing or exploding engines, but nowhere close to assured.
Aborting a pregnancy is, with modern medicine, significantly safer for the mother than it was even back in the 1970s, when it was not as dangerous as aborting a rocket launch. But it is still dangerous to the mother -- even if you don't consider the child.
My family was concerned, but the Church we attend advised us that abortion is not murder, even though it is a matter of serious risk and moral consequence; that it should be considered only in cases of serious danger to the life of the mother or the child; or that it could be prayerfully considered in cases of rape, incest, danger to the health of the mother, or clear probability of the baby not surviving or surviving with grave or life-threatening disability.
I have four sisters. They have friends. I have heard a variety of stories about dreams in which women see their babies before they are born, in which they feel the babies' presence from the moment of conception, and such.
I have also examined the math that the geneticists use and found some subtle errors in their math, errors that essentially require that mathematics of randomness cannot be the only process in play in genetics.
I am strongly impressed that the spirit of the unborn child is present at least from the moment of conception, and takes a direct hand in selecting the gametes, and in their growth as a fetus and as a baby, limited by the genetic and nutritional resources and other similar factors in their environment.
This understanding colors my approach to the question. I perceive that abortion is not murder, because the spirit is not yet inhabiting the body and can (if he or she dares) try again. But it is still a matter of serious consequence.
Until some point in the early 2000s, I was inclined to say that we should let the mother decide and just leave it at that. But I was aware, even in my teens, of guys around me who were saying things like "She can always get an abortion now." as their excuse for pushing their girlfriends to go all the way, as they would put it.
(You ain't gone all the way if you ain't taking care of the baby is what I sometimes pointed out in such conversations, to little effect.)
In the early 2000s, not only was it becoming clear that people were treating abortion as a prophylactic of last resort. It was also becoming clear that there were medical personnel profiting from abortion and actively trying to increase their profits.
Abortion has become an industry. I do not know how much people are aware of just how much it has become an industry.
Given the above, sure, nothing is black and white, as you say.
Let me give you a real-world example of predatory legal practice in medical matters.
My uncle was a psychiatrist. He was sued by a patient who jumped from a window and permanently disabled himself, who claimed that it was because of the treatment my uncle prescribed. That suit could have cost my uncle his practice and his ability to provide for my cousins, but he always documented his work and the reasons he prescribed the treatments carefully, and how the patient himself was following the treatment, and was able to avoid the worst outcome of the suit. His insurance company also helped.
It seems to me that we have basically the same questions being raised about abortion malpractice claims. You do understand that malpractice claims can see a psychiatrist or other doctor going to jail also, I think? Destroy their career, etc.?
You ask about one rogue doctor somewhere who will be willing to attack another doctor for moral points or profit?
Sure, they exist, but there are also doctors who are willing to take up questionable patient claims in other medical fields. My uncle faced a couple. Had to have his lawyer cross examine them and argue their claims in court.
On the other hand, we do have an industry that has gone way too far in promoting abortion, as I point out above.
On the subject of obstetrics, the doctor that attended my wife when my oldest was born was very popular where we lived and had more patients than he could handle. He was a good doc. On one occasion after my oldest was born, he was working on too little sleep and dropped a baby. There were mitigating circumstances, but he essentially lost his practice completely. I don't believe he went to jail, but I think he was fined. He was a good doc, trying too hard. Was that fair?
I do not see any reason for the panicking about this. Doctors who do not understand that they carry a burden of responsibility, and who cannot read the laws and listen to the people who wrote the laws and the people who must interpret them in court, well, they should read the laws and listen to the people that wrote them, and to the people who must interpret them in court, who say that they are trying really hard to write the laws in a way that on the one hand, allow legitimate medical procedures to continue, but on the other hand, put the brakes on an industry that should not have become an industry.
