When people start engaging in discussion about abortion they neglect that they are discussing about how other people should treat their own bodies.
Our bodies are our temples,
Our only true property
Nobody has the right to tell us what to do with it under no circumstances even if the population of the planet was down to a few thousand.
“The Baby is defenseless”
So is the mother who supports it. Whether it is a clump of cells or a developed embryo is irrelevant. The host will have to take care of the potential offspring until it exits the cervix. The baby while being incubated in the guts of the mother functions much like a parasite. In other words it lives inside another organism and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host's expense. The parasite in this case can also kill the host so it can survive. Evolutionary mechanisms do not care about ethics or what some group of humans at a random era on this planet have to say about it. This is how life has evolved on this planet for millions of years. If the mother decides to end the pregnancy to salvage any risk of her dying then she has every right to do so.
Even if hypothetically there was no risk of death, the mother should be able to decide about her own body since she is the providing life—and she will continue to do so after the baby is born. She is solely responsible for it. The potential offspring can have a major negative impact both in her mental and social life. She owes to treat the birth like an investement for her own livelihood. We get to live only once.
“I object ethically because my religion prohibits it”
You said it. Your religion. Your ethics. You are allowed to believe whatever you want but you have no right to say to others what they can or can’t do with their body because you were brought up to believe in some sets of ethics and not others. Nobody gives you the right to decide for the life of others.
Abortion is an issue of entitlement. Some people believe that they can have a say about how other people treat their own bodies. The drama behind it is mostly for religious reasons. Most believers feel the right to “guide” other people’s lives because they feel that we are part of a greater plan. Truth or ethics are not and cannot be democratic if we value individuality. No matter what one believes about the value of life, no one has the right to impose their will on others. Our bodies are our only sacred property—not the will of others.
