It has become commonplace in the past several decades to refer to people either as "pro-choice" or "pro-life." And "pro-choice" is often misinterpreted to mean pro-abortion. No one is pro-abortion, any more than anyone is pro-chemotherapy. Either one has its place, when circumstances unfortunately call for them. But no one wants the circumstance, whether it's unwanted pregnancy (or faulty fetus) or cancer, any more than anyone wants the intervention to have to deal with the circumstance. But no one wants there to be unwanted pregnancies, or cancer, so that there can be abortion, or chemotherapy. And certainly no one would tell someone else they ought to have an abortion, because in the opinion of the advisor, the prospective parent wouldn't be a good one, or it's a financial strain to rear children. You might think that, but you would never try to impose your judgment onto someone else, even if you think they're making a bad decision. It's their decision, not your decision, to make.
As for the people who call themselves "pro-life," they're not. The vast majority of them are not opposed to capital punishment, and many or most of them are not opposed to civilians' owning guns. Probably more or less none of them are even vegetarians. They're not "pro-life" at all. They're just anti-abortion, really for who knows what reasons. I don't know if they know.
In 1989, I bought a cartoon that had been printed in the Miami Herald. The cartoonist was Jim Morin. There were two figures in the cartoon. One was an adult, and he had on a tag that said "GOV. BOB" (Martinez). He was carrying a sign that said "PROTECT THE UNBORN." The other character was a young black kid holding a piece of paper with a list that included the title "BUDGET CUTS," and then listed "EDUCATION, CHILD CARE, DROPOUT PREVENTION" and "PRENATAL CARE FOR POOR." The "GOV. BOB" character pointed with his thumb, as if to say "take a hike," and said "GET LOST!! YOU'VE ALREADY BEEN BORN." So, whatever the people who (wrongly) call themselves "pro-life" think they mean by calling themselves that, it doesn't seem to be intended to do anyone any good.
But really, they're not pro anything. They've just got themselves convinced they don't approve of abortion, they don't know why, and they've decided that their sentiments should control other people's lives. When I was in college, which was a long time ago, you would sometimes see a bumper sticker that said "If you don't believe in abortion, don't have one." Yeah, that pretty much works.
And the anti-abortion people aren't even consistent about it. Some of them are only anti-abortion after the fetus is X number of weeks old. Or they make an exception if the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest, or threatens the life of the mother. The fact is that I don't disagree with them about an age (of fetus) limit. If a woman gets pregnant, she'll know it in a month. She'll miss a period. Chances are that she already didn't want to get pregnant. But now she is, and maybe that fact makes her think twice. And whether or not she wanted to get pregnant, she may well want an amniocentesis. So add another month or two. But once you're pregnant for a trimester, you've had time to consider if you want to go ahead with something you might not have wanted to happen, and you've had time to discuss this with the other person involved. And see what the amniocentesis results are. I don't know the statistics, but I would venture to guess that almost all abortions happen within the first trimester anyway. Because the woman never wanted to get pregnant, and still doesn't want to be, the father didn't want a pregnancy, and/or the fetus is not healthy. And this is whose business?
And what's this exception for rape or incest? What difference does it make how the woman, or, as we recently heard, 10 year old girl, got pregnant? If you want to claim to be "pro-life," you have to have a coherent theory (none of them do, and they always cite some religious basis), and you can't make exceptions. For yourself. You can't have anything to say about people who are not you, and whose beliefs might be very different from yours. Also, if your objection to abortion is religious, who are you to decide that the mother should live, and "god's" fetus should be sacrificed? Assuming "god" put that unwanted (by the humans) fetus there, doesn't "god" get to decide who lives and who dies? Of course, if you think there's such a thing as "god," you might also think there's such a thing as the "devil." In which case, who put that pregnancy there where no one wanted it? Does that affect what you think should be done about it (for you)?
Stacey Abrams says abortion is on the ballot (in the vote for governor) in Georgia. I suspect it is in a lot of places. I voted today. I hope you did, too.
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