{"id":61575,"date":"2016-06-21T13:00:15","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T20:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=61575"},"modified":"2016-06-21T22:27:54","modified_gmt":"2016-06-22T05:27:54","slug":"doing-whatever-you-want-with-your-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2016\/06\/21\/doing-whatever-you-want-with-your-body\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Apology: Doing whatever you want with your body?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s post is a follow-up to the one last\u00a0Thursday<\/a>. In response to my comments about the differences between circumcision and abortion, a friend-of-a-friend offered a reply. However, rather than responding to what I said, he simply trotted out a\u00a0favourite slogan of the pro-choice moment. Here was our exchange:<\/p>\n

\"Bodies\"<\/p>\n

“My body, my choice”<\/em><\/span> is one of the favourite sayings\u00a0of those who favour the continued legal access to abortion. However, the statement is patently false and I would suggest that nobody really<\/span> believes it<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In principal and in pregnancy<\/h3>\n

\"TwoBodies\"We place limits on what people can and cannot do with their bodies all the time. When these limits are violated we use names to describe it, such as\u00a0“assault”<\/em> and “rape”<\/em>. So as a general principle, no, we cannot<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0do whatever we want with our bodies…particularly when it affects another person’s body in a negative fashion.<\/p>\n

Returning to the specific subject of pregnancy, I would like to draw upon an example from the 1960s. Back then, Thermaldahide<\/em> was used by doctors to combat morning sickness, but unfortunately the drug\u00a0was found to cause serious deformities in the children of those pregnancies. Now, if a woman truly<\/strong><\/em> can do whatever<\/strong><\/em> she wants with her body, it would follow that she should have the right, if she so chooses<\/strong><\/em>, to take thermaldahide<\/em> even if she knows\u00a0the effects it could have on the child. I would hope that the conscience of everyone reading this\u00a0article would respond with a hearty\u00a0“No!”, once again showing that we do not have completely free reign over what we do\u00a0with our bodies.<\/p>\n

The unanswered question<\/h3>\n

Please consider the above Facebook exchange and note the very simple question asked. If he truly believes that women can do whatever she wants with “her” body, then he should endorse a woman choosing to have an abortion a week before giving birth, right?<\/p>\n

Even now, several weeks later, I have received no reply from him. No matter how often I hear the rhetoric about women doing whatever they want with their bodies, it is\u00a0extremely rare to receive a clear answer to this question.\u00a0The reason for this is that\u00a0answering this question places the pro-choice advocate in a rather\u00a0awkward position:<\/p>\n

Options #1: No<\/strong>
\nIf he would not be okay with a woman aborting shortly before\u00a0birth (which I suspect is the case), he undermines the “My body, my choice”<\/em><\/span> rhetoric, since he concedes\u00a0that there are some things which she can’t<\/strong> do with her body and that there are\u00a0some choices which\u00a0are not<\/strong>\u00a0actually okay.<\/p>\n

Option #2: Yes<\/strong>
\nHowever, if he says\u00a0that a woman should be allowed to\u00a0abort her child at any\u00a0point\u00a0for whatever\u00a0reason,\u00a0<\/strong>he will appear callous. This unveils the central argument of abortion, showing it in all its ugliness:\u00a0that a person’s life is only of value\u00a0if it is wanted…otherwise that life is entirely disposable.<\/p>\n

(Additionally, if he places no restrictions on abortion he must automatically abandon all the arguments which attempt to justify abortion based on viability, level of development, or the ability to feel pain etc)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

How is a pro-life apologist to respond? How does he\u00a0get out of this bind?<\/p>\n

An attempted answer<\/h3>\n

On the rare occasions when I’ve heard the question answered, it’s usually something along these lines:<\/p>\n

“Well, I don’t like<\/strong>\u00a0the idea of a woman aborting her child just before birth, but I’d absolutely defend her\u00a0right<\/strong> to do so. Her body, her choice.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Although this answer\u00a0attempts to make the pro-choice position more principled and dignified, I’m afraid it’s no less horrific. He\u00a0still thinks\u00a0that a mother should be able to have\u00a0her child killed!<\/p>\n

Fortunately, receiving this answer can help us who are pro-life to move the conversation forward. The pro-choice advocate\u00a0has just expressed at least some level of disapproval of\u00a0abortion. This creates an opening for a follow-up question:<\/p>\n

“Why<\/strong> don’t you like the idea of a woman aborting her child just before birth?”<\/span><\/em>,<\/p>\n

Asking this question can help us\u00a0get to the question which is at the real heart of the abortion debate: what are the unborn?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s post is a follow-up to the one last\u00a0Thursday. In response to my comments about the differences between circumcision and abortion, a friend-of-a-friend offered a reply. However, rather than responding to what I said, he simply trotted out a\u00a0favourite slogan of the pro-choice moment. Here was our exchange: “My body, my choice” is one of the favourite sayings\u00a0of those who<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[232,662,2969,19,1728,1601],"class_list":["post-61575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","tag-abortion","tag-body","tag-featured","tag-life","tag-pro-choice","tag-pro-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/MyBodyMyChoice.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61575"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61659,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61575\/revisions\/61659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}