Abortion seems to me to be an inherently insoluble moral and human rights conundrum. The best course however may be to face this complexity rather than seek to reduce it to a final solution. As the arguments currently stand I feel driven to advocate for a position that is pro-choice and pro-life.
In the late 1960s abortion was illegal in Australia. One consequence of this was the common practice of horrendous, self-administered or so-called backyard abortions, that put women at risk. This was the lot of the poor and unsupported, as medical terminations of pregnancy could be obtained for a high fee.
The TV drama series Dangerous Remediesdocuments this period of corruption, advocacy and eventual legalising of abortion. In a recent interview Jo Wainer, widow of pro-abortion campaigner Dr Bertram Wainer and a central protagonist depicted in the drama, confirms it is largely faithful to her experiences at the time.
Jo and Bertram received death threats, ironically from pro-lifers.
This still occurs in the US. Abortion was a hot election issue during the recent campaign, alongside the economy. Largely the argument is generated by the Roe Vs Wade 1973 United States Supreme court decision on abortion. According to the Wikipedia entry on this landmark decision:
The Court ruled that a right to privacy under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but that right must be balanced against the state's two legitimate interests in regulating abortions: protecting prenatal life and protecting women's health.
Arguments became centred on definitions of the 'personhood' of the foetus. Some argue that human personhood begins at conception, while others, such as the ethicist Peter Singer, argue that it occurs later.
I am deeply unsympathetic to the argument that strips the foetus of any protection under human rights by defining personhood in Singer's terms, summarised by Scientific American blogger John Horgan as claiming 'even a viable foetus is not a rational, self-aware person with desires and plans, which would be cut short by death; hence it should not have the same right as humans who have such qualities'.
Singer's definition of a person as rational and able to make plans and envisage a future could exclude trauma victims, or those suffering from severe depression or even mild cognitive impairment. This could include my 93-year-old mother and sometimes myself.
The abortion debate is not for most of us a coldly rational one. It generates enormous emotional