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From: saquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: Beyond Smugness: The Consequences Everyone Should Consider
Message-ID: <10219@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 8-Dec-84 12:05:37 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.10219
Posted: Sat Dec  8 12:05:37 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Dec-84 02:44:56 EST
References: <1545@pur-phy.UUCP> <308@bonnie.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
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> 	Some interesting points are brought out in that posting,
> but I think the argument that abortion prevents future suffering
> is fundamentally flawed.  Abortion also prevents a future geniuses
> although, perhaps, to a lesser extent.  Two wrongs do not make a right!
> Child abuse, malnutrition, lousy school systems, etc. are 
> terrible things, but the cure, hopefully, is not more abortions.
> These problems need to be solved separately, both with and without
> state aid.

The argument might be "fundamentally flawed" but the reality is that
things being the way they are now, abortion DOES prevent future suffering
(along with possible future genial discoveries).  And the reality is also
that, as was pointed by the original article, the people who are militantly
anti-choice also do not do anything positive (short of cosmetic actions such
as "pregnancy counselling") to really help prevent abortions, in a manner
which would also respect the humanity of women.

> 	Abortion may indeed be a practical solution to many problems,
> both personal and social, but the essential issues are moral and
> legal.

The reality is that people who will probably never need abortions feel that
it is right for them to specify to those who will what "essential issues" are.
When you are faced with your own pregnancy, wanted or unwanted, the "essential
issue" is not moral and legal, because it is not a issue, it is the reality
of what will happen to your life and that of your child.
> 
> 						Ed Hummel

Sophie Quigley
...!{clyde,ihnp4,decvax}!watmath!saquigley