I probably should not talk about this because I am a middle-aged, flesh-eating, white male, but I have an opinion.
One thing, that we need to get clear first, is that nobody – absolutely nobody – is advocating for more abortions. The real issue here is, how to reduce them. Wether you think human rights should be appointed at the point of conception, or at birth the fact, that in societies where abortion is illegal more abortions do take place and they are often more dangerous to the woman, especially if they are poor, than in societies where abortion is legal. It should therefore be obvious, that simply banning them is not a good way to reduce them.
Nowhere is this discussion as heated as in the USA. I guess it is because no other country with secular constitution has as much religiously minded voters. Their sincerely held religious beliefs have been turned into a populist political tool dangled before them to provoke emotional, rather than rational reaction. It is an effective way to sway, misdirect and abuse voters in that it involves the sanctity of life, innocent and helpless subject to violence, the identity of the religious person as part of the group from wich they get their values and a problem that in real life there are no easy answers to, but to the ignorant and emotionally involved one can be seemingly presented.
The Supreme Court of USA decided a while ago to overturn the Roe vs. Wade descision in order to let the states to decide wether or not abortion should be legal. My opinion is, that thus the US Supreme Court has acted in contempt of their own constitution by enabling the states to impose the religious beliefs of some on others.
The idea that the soul begins at the moment of conception – true or false – is a religiously held belief. There is no evidence, that can back it up. Infact, there is no evidence of a soul existing at all. There is no organ, that holds this magical essence of a human being. Exept perhaps the brain, where other such imaginary things reside. One can use the word to poetically describe the persona of an individual, but let us not be hypocritical and claim that is the way state legistlators and their voters who wish to ban abortion see the issue. They are motivated precisely by superstition & their religious moralist beliefs, not by anything else. Hardly anything demonstrates this better, than the fact, that in this day and age of easy access to information, these legistlative bodies have decided to ignore all the research and facts about the issue. Facts, like the one that abortions are not actually much reduced by bans. They simply become more unhealthy and down right dangerous. Facts, like that abortions are reduced by sex education and easy access to free contraception. These matter not, as if the goal was not to reduce abortions, but simply punish the women who need one. They all need it to ask for one. Nobody, absolutely nobody has an abortion just because it is such a thrill. If anyone ever did, they would actually need it more than any other, as it would indicate them as even more unprepared for parenthood, than all the others who feel they need to go through it.
You simply can not make people to become more able parents by punishing them for having had sex. If you are under such a blatant misunderstanding, perhaps it would be best for the sake of any possible kids, you would reconsider becoming a parent your self?
Both the religious moralist motivation and the demand that a woman should sacrifice her body to sustain the developing embryo, claimed to supposedly hold same rights as a fully developed human individual – even if that were true and equal – are against everything the US constitution stands for.
The USA s just a nother country, albeit a fairly big one. I fear for the rest of the world. The USA has shown an example of the success of liberal policies. If this emotional and divisive issue continues to divert political power to other fascist agenda there, it may yet again become an issue in the rest of the world and good willing people all over the globe may become vessels for this stupidity. We have already seen it happen in the heart of Europe, in Poland. The attitudes of the world population stand in danger of hardening in so many issues, not just this. There are, of course, many roads that lead to the demands of controll of the lives of others and eventually Fascism, but this one is especially devious, because it sels itself as a means to protect the innocent and defenseless children, while it actually can not provide any protection to anyone. On the contrary, it sets the living, breathing women in danger, while the amount of abortion and especially late term abortions is likely to grow.
World's Pain 
March 8, 2023 at 4:02 pm
I wish I could mark this post with LOVE! Of course everything you wrote could have come from my own thoughts and fingers. It is such a VERY personal issue for many women, yet it is the MEN in political and religious control that make the rules without ANY regard for those directly involved. And that is WRONG on so many levels!
And yes, the decision and actions of the U.S. leaders too often influence the rest of the world, which is very unfortunate. And, in many cases, dangerous.
Thank you for writing this, rautakyy. It is an issue that should NEVER be allowed to die.
March 8, 2023 at 4:53 pm
I agree it is absolutely wrong, that the reproductive organs on a person should determine how much political power they hold. Especially in an issue concerning foremost the people who happen to have the other kind of reproductive organs. The facts, though, remain unchanged wether men or women make bad descisions based on their personal, or collective superstitions & biases. To me it is descriptive of the situation we are in, that the fact how banning abortion does not lessen the amount of abortions, but causes a volume of other societal problems and very direct health and emotional issues, not to mention legal reprecussions to women, who are already in the unfortunate position, that they have to consider, not to have the baby, their pregnancy might develope into, are totally disregarded even by the high courts and legistlative organs, that should – if anyone ever – be very well informed of the realities. That a certain political movement is inclined to this fantasy reality, that is not touched by what really goes on in this world.
The USA is a powerfull nation, whose influence may be good, or bad. Often in history, it has been for good. With such power comes responsibility. In a democracy such responsibility extends to any and all persons who are eligable to vote. Europe is in debt to US soldiers who sacrificed their personal safety and sometimes life to save the world from Nazism, while the likes of rep. Taylor Greene try to disgrace those veterans and their sacrifice and effort by saying Europe is not worth saving from Fascism again. A perfect example of political irresponsibility in a dire situation.
I had to write my mind on the issue, that has been bothering me for so long. That we so easily end up in the wrong discussion about wether the superstitions about a soul are true, when the believer is not going to give up their identity or connected superstitions even in the face of facts, but perhaps they could be persuaded by the less complicated and ambigious facts, like when Abortions were banned in Ireland, their relative abortion rate was worse, than that of the UK otherwise culturally very similar country right in the neighbourhood. Rich Irish women would travel to England to have their abortions, while the poor had to live with the consequenses, or rely on the coathanger method. So the bann did not work. It would not have worked even if the rich could not have gotten to England, as it would have only meant they would have had to rely on the coathanger method also.
March 8, 2023 at 5:04 pm
You are absolutely “allowed” to have an opinion on this, regardless of your gender or anything else. The only problem I see with a male expressing an opinion on abortion is if he uses his opinions to create legislation that harms women. You made some very good and valid points and I agree with them. This country (and others, of course) continues to make laws based on religious doctrine and that is not what this country was founded on – quite the opposite.
There is no argument that the innocent need to be protected and we have laws in place to regulate this. Abortion is one of those “gray” subjects. There is no reason that I can think of that abortion should be acceptable in the third trimester except for medical conditions that are incompatible with life for the fetus or serious harm to the mother if the pregnancy continues. It’s gray areas like that complicate things, in my opinion. Let’s just hope that the fascists don’t continue down the path they are currently on. I fear for the country.
March 9, 2023 at 3:22 am
Yes, agreed, the late term abortions are in somewhat grey area. It appears, that any moral issue that can be put there may also be used by the populist politicians to create a sentimental response from the sort of people who want black & white answers. So, in my (less than humble) opinion, the problem lies in people, to whom moral evaluation is challenging because of their lack of basic understanding of the world. Please, do not get me wrong, such people can be very succesfull and highly educated, but what I mean is a certain lack of “skill”, or possibly some form of emotional trauma blocking them in extending their natural inclination to empathy towards some others. In my view – and I am not a professional of psychology – it appears as if some form of fear has beset them into a vicious circkle, where it limits their view, while the limited scope causes the fear of what is beyond the scope.
March 9, 2023 at 9:23 am
Their sincerely held religious beliefs
This is not the case. It’s political.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-right-real-origins-107133
March 9, 2023 at 12:40 pm
Yes, that is sinister. As is the entire Conservative agenda these days, as it no longer is really about conserving cultural elements, unless those serve the fascist worldview of inequality and authoritarianism. It is about fear. Fear of the outsider and the unknown. Both of wich give easy and easily manipulated primitive reactions from the target audience, that is inclined to believe supernatural nonsense, is tribal and has trouble overcoming it’s biases.
The goal is to justify priviledges, both the real ones of the rich and the imaginary ones of the easily scared morons. But I did mean a large group of people both Catholic and Protestants, who have been taught this “pro-life” agenda as a religious value and are happless enough to be unaware how they are being played against people they have more in common, than those who lead them.
March 9, 2023 at 1:39 pm
I agree that this is mostly the case. One only has to look at trump to confirm. Most religious anti-choice people know that he does not share their beliefs, even though he is the darling of that crowd. However, he has championed tham and worked to change laws. It’s a very dangerous mix of religiosity and politics.
March 10, 2023 at 4:55 am
It also reveals a very utilitarian view of other people. Bad enough not to be just called anti-altruistic, rather extremely selfish. Overt selfisness is oft excused by claims of everybody being equally selfish, and look how handy it is when the selfish people band up to reinforce their preconception of rotten human nature to a political, or some other bubble from the confines of wich they think they can judge everybody else. This childlike mindset, that something wrong is OK because “everybody” is guilty of it. Look how the abortion discussion suddenly provides a seemingly high moral hobby horse to sit on and feel better, than less fortunate people who have ended up with this burden – and one gets to blame them, even if one no longer dared to blame the rape victim for how they dressed, as if that ever had anything to do with it.
I think Trump and other populists have succesfully tapped into the issue to advertizing of themselves as products to the people who are morally corrupt, lost, or at best confused, because that is the group of people with the worst skils to evaluate morality and thus policies. They are the most ideal consumer group to be marketed low browed stuff like fear, hatred and easy moralist judgement passed to make oneself feel better, or even superior, rather than to be fair and just. The world is full of Trumps, Bolsonaros, Marcoses, Erdogans, Modis and Putins trying to fill in some emotional gap they have. Such tyrants are sometimes not satisfied bullying just their families, or co-workers, but reach for political power and are supported by others of their ilk, who feel justified in their own abuses by the popularity of their role models. The trick, however is to get a critical mass in the society to move to the same direction and that is where the abortion issue comes in handy, providing a seemingly black&white moral issue, they give the ready answer to, linked to the religious identities of a bunch of people crippled by that.