Defending barbaric conduct 'Un-American'

I read a letter to the editor recently about it being “un-American” to dictate to another person that they should not be able to terminate an inconvenient pregnancy. The core of this person’s argument was that one person’s religious beliefs shouldn’t be pushed on others. OK, for the sake of argument let’s look at it from a humanistic view, judging proper humanistic conduct according to the basis of reason, ethics, and justice.

We function in western civilization because people agree to abide by mutual expectation of adherence to a shared social contract. We don’t put the guilty to death without a trial by jury and process of extensive appeals, because society has dictated that doing so would be unjust. If you are responsible for stopping a fetal heartbeat through unlawful or even negligent conduct, you’re guilty of some form of manslaughter or murder. Yet asking a third party to do it with your consent magically makes it “a personal choice”? There is simply no way to construct a good argument to make this work, folks.

Choosing to stop the beating heart of your own gestating offspring is simply barbaric, standing in stark contrast to any sense of ethical behavior and justice for the innocent. With the choice of using a vast array of birth control methods or choosing abstinence (however your personal beliefs dictate), making a choice to stop a beating heart without proof of guilt cannot be justified in a modern civilized world. As a cop I found it curious that Tookie Williams (co-founder of the Crip street gang who we had incarcerated in LA County Jail for years while he fought a death penalty case) had people protesting application of the death penalty for people of his ilk, yet many of those same death penalty opponents would think nothing of ending a gestational life that was as yet blameless in the eyes of society. Even if you remove religious views from the equation, your legal rights as a human to be protected should commence when your heart starts beating, regardless of “inconvenient location”.

Allow for any religious views and it’s that much more unacceptable to defend this behavior. Should I be forgiving to those who choose to have an abortion because it violates my Christian beliefs? I believe so. Do I vigorously oppose the legality and support for barbaric behavior in the guise of “personal freedom”? Absolutely.

In the same way that my right to swing my fist ends where your face begins, and my right to drive a motor vehicle ends where your safety as my passenger begins, personal freedom should end when the decision to stop a beating heart for the sake of convenience hangs in the balance.

Todd Robinson

Sagle