Winterrrrr
The impoverished conditions, under which the majority of the world’s population lives, are truly appalling. However, I believe the suggestion that legalizing abortion should play a part in reducing poverty is gravely flawed for two reasons. First, it is inappropriate to solve societal problems by eliminating the people affected. We don’t fight malaria by killing those with malarial infections. Similarly, we shouldn’t fight poverty by aborting the poor. Secondly, there is no evidence that legalizing abortion helps women break through poverty. True women’s empowerment requires education, material resources and personal support — not abortion.
To be honest, I was raging for a while after reading this article. The author makes a good point about how abortion is not the be all and end all of the magic formula to end poverty, and shouldn’t be presented as such. What I am bothered with is that there is no mention about the other things that women value aside from having children, as if all women will choose not to abort if only living conditions are better.
A good friend of mine summarized my sentiments, and I paraphrase, “you always need the permission of the person in whose body you’re residing.”
