Ruminating on the Topic of Abortion

I was ambivalent about the issue of legalized abortion for a long, long time. I've always been conflicted between the right to life argument and a person's right to control their own body. But after a lot of thought on this topic, I think I've finally decided I am pretty much a hard core, pro-lifer...but I'm certainly not some Fundamentalist either (i.e. I would never condone abortion clinic bombings or killing abortion doctors).

It is my view that abortion should be an issue resolved by the States and not by Supreme Court Fiat...and that the right thing for all 50 States to do would be to outlaw abortions with the exceptions for medical cases of life endangerment, or proven rape/incest cases.

I believe abortion is murder, and it is a barbaric act for which their is no acceptable excuse for it other than medical endangerment or rape/incest.

The feminist/pro-choice people no doubt find my position to be radical and an attempt to "take away a women's control over her own body."

I reject this line of reasoning on several grounds:

Women always have and always will have the choice to control their bodies.

They can decide who they have sex with.

They can decide which of the multiple forms of birth control they can use to prevent pregnancy in the first place.

Yes, I'm quite familiar with the ole, "What about those that were using birth control, but the control failed?"

I think as far as that goes, than a woman shouldn't be having sex with a man unless she is already prepared to deal with the potential consequences; i.e. if you don't know this guy well, or you know he's gonna skip town if you get pregnant, or he's an abusive drug addict or alcoholic, than you shouldn't be doing him in the first place, birth control or not. But hey, if you want to, go ahead, I'm not gonna try to get laws to stop you...but just be prepared to deal with the potential consequences for your choices.

If abortion were illegal across the board, most women would be a lot more careful and a lot more selective about who, where and when they sleep with, because they know the potential consequences would change their lives forever. That is how it used to be when abortion was largely illegal.

And I also reject the line of reasoning about back alley coat hanger abortions. Rape, murder and robbery happen all the time despite being illegal. The fact that they are happening is not a persuasive argument to legalize them either.

The entire argument of the feminists as far as I can tell really boils down to this: the feminist goal is to enable women to engage in any kind of sexual behavior they want to and not have to face the consequences for their behavior.

No-Fault divorce is the feminist aim to give women carte blanc to commit adultery and break their marriage contract without penalty.

Abortion is the feminist solution to give women the right to kill their baby rather than deal with issues of personal responsibility for their own choices and behavior.

In short, my view is that Feminism's primary goal is to remove any and all constraints on how a woman wants to act sexually.

But to be clear: As a Libertarian, I don't want to control women's sexuality by force of law at all.

But neither do I want to have laws as they are now that provide the means to remove, shield or protect people from experiencing the negative consequences for their own bad choices.