Pharyngula points to a poll that asks us if we “agree with the Genocide Awareness Project’s stance that abortion is genocide“.
Certainly not! Abortion is the result of an individual’s choice exercised against her own body. Genocide is the result of official government policy against a whole people. (However, forcible abortion can be used as an instrument of genocide.)
The right to an abortion, like the right to keep and bear arms, flows from our right and responsibility to govern our actions by our own consciences, even in matters of life and death. When we abdicate that right to the government, we enslave and degrade ourselves.
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I’ve had this post mouldering in my Drafts folder for more than a year now. I don’t have time to blow the dust off, much less polish it up, but I really need to get it out where it can be looked at.
I wrote it in response to an email from a family member who is passionate about protecting abortion rights, but aggressive about abolishing the right to keep and bear arms. That may have ever so slightly affected the slant. ["Slant? There's a slant to this blog? Why wasn't I told?"]
Whatever. Here it is, for better and for worse. I’ll very likely come back and clean it up later, when I have a bit more time, and (with any luck) some feedback from both sides.
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Legal and social context of the right to keep and bear arms (KABA) versus the right to an abortion:
KABA: Directly, the right to own a tool.
Indirectly, the right to use that tool in defense of your life and liberty.
Abortion: Directly, the right to end the life of a human embryo or fetus.
Indirectly, the right to govern your own body and your personal resources as you see fit.
KABA: The legal right to keep and bear arises from English common law, itself based on a primal instinct to defend one’s self and family.
Abortion: The legal right to an abortion is mostly a 20th century innovation. Abortion was forbidden under English common law. However, it appears to have been quietly ignored; and even outright infanticide immediately post-partum, while a felony in common law, is often ignored in practice. [Um, according to my hasty web research. I welcome clarification and correction on this point.]
KABA: Explicitly enumerated in and protected by the Constitution.*
Abortion: Protected by a Constitutional “penumbra” vaguely defined by the Court.
KABA: Applies to all competent, law-abiding adult citizens, at least in theory. “The right of the people…shall not be infringed” is as broad and absolute a prohibition on government interference as exists in the Constitution. In practice, of course, there are many jurisdictions where the right is denied even to retired or off duty military and police personnel.
Abortion: Applies to adult females, even violent felons, non-citizens, and (in some jurisdictions) minor children without parental oversight. In any case, though, only to females. Males, even the fathers, have no legal standing in most jurisdictions.
KABA: Rarely discussed in the classroom, even at the college level. In fact, many public schools effectively forbid discussion.
Abortion: Routine sex-education topic, even in junior high.
KABA: Press coverage is extremely hostile, and often inaccurate and deceptive. Sources who have never handled a firearm and are blatantly ignorant are cited as “experts”.
Abortion: Press coverage is generally sympathetic, although it may be just as inaccurate and deceptive. Sources are often professional advocates, health practitioners, or women who have had abortions. (Of course, the fetuses involved are rarely interviewed, photographed, or even mentioned.)
KABA: Heavily regulated by a hostile, arbitrary, and incompetent federal bureaucracy (the BATFX), and many usually hostile, or at best benign, state and local agencies.
Abortion: Regulated by ordinary medical practice, and many state and local agencies. Depending on jurisdiction, these agencies may be supportive, benign, or hostile.
Self Defense: Sole legal justification is defense against a direct, violent threat. In some jurisdictions, you must make every effort to escape before mounting a potentially lethal defense, even allowing an aggressor to chase you from your home or business.
Abortion: No legal justification required. Personal justification ranges from blocking an imminent threat to the mother’s health, to ending an inconvenient annoyance.
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Consequences of exercising the implied right to use a weapon in self defense, or the direct right to have an abortion:
Self Defense: Very often, merely displaying the tool ends the threat, and there is no injury or death at all.
Abortion: Exercising the right inherently involves killing the embryo or fetus.
Self Defense: Target is typically a career criminal with a long history of lawlessness and violence who is deliberately threatening the shooter.
Abortion: Target is, excuse me, there is no other word, an innocent, and is not in any way responsible for the problem. On the other hand, at least for abortions in the first two trimesters, the target doesn’t have anything resembling a human brain, either. It is not self-aware, and does not have a conscience. It is innocent in the sense an earthworm or minnow is innocent (although even those creatures have mature, functioning brains).
Self Defense: Bystanders may be accidentally injured or killed. Such incidents are closely investigated, and the shooter is typically criminally responsible and civilly liable.
Abortion: Accidental abortions are called “miscarriages”, and can result from both preventable and non-preventable causes. Either way, they are typically not investigated by law enforcement. Only the mother and the affected fetus are involved. However, abortions are used to terminate “accidental” pregnancies, which often result from careless sex.
Self Defense: Self-defense decisions are made in the face of extreme threats, such as rape or death, and must be instant and instinctive. Weapons owners should, as part of their training, carefully think through the issues and decide under what circumstances they will employ lethal force, in order to act appropriately when the crucial moment comes.
Abortion: At puberty, girls should be presented with the facts and advised to carefully think through the issues. In any event, however, if an unexpected pregnancy occurs, the mother typically has hours, even days or weeks, to think things through and consult with family, friends, counselors, physicians, and, it is to be hoped, the father.
Self Defense: Merely displaying your weapon to an attacker (”brandishing”) can result in a police investigation, possible jury trial, and fine or imprisonment. As for actually putting a bullet in someone? Always, if the act comes to official notice, there is at least a police investigation, possibly resulting in life in prison, even execution.
“Every bullet comes with a lawyer attached.”
“Better to be judged by twelve than buried by six.”
Abortion: In most jurisdictions, abortion is a private, privileged matter between a woman and her doctor. Often, not even the father (or, for older minors, the parents) have standing. Under most circumstances, the matter never comes to the attention of law enforcement.
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The asymmetry can balanced in two ways: relax constraints on the right to keep and bear arms, or tighten constraints on the right to an abortion. I strongly favor the former.
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* In fact, the Second Amendment protects one of the two tools mentioned by the Constitution.
Pop Quiz: what’s the other? Hint: Not obstetrical forceps or curette.
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The printing press.