A common argument in defense of abortion is that desperate women will turn to the dark market or to self-mutilation to terminate pregnancies if abortions are made illegal.
I’m willing to concede that simply crafting a law to outlaw abortions does little to solve the very real issues faced by women who have unplanned pregnancies. Obviously, these issues need to be recognized and addressed.
But, if we’re talking about a frame of mind so desperate that self-mutilation or submission to a black market procedure are considered as options, then clearly there is something far more concerning going on.
It seems to me that we’re talking about a philosophical state of mind where serious therapy, aid, and support is needed, a state of mind that could be made far WORSE by actually undergoing an abortion.
This is why I have always viewed abortion as having two victims: both the unborn child and the mother. I have never viewed the mother as the criminal in the abortion scenario.
(Too often, the criminals are the absent male figures who should be supporting her, a culture and philosophy that paints abortion as liberating when it is all too often personally devastating, and the laws and medical practices that violate common-sense moral ethics of human life)
So yes, banning abortion without recognizing and addressing the reasons why women seek out abortions is unresponsible. But, pretending that getting an abortion is some sort of cure-all for those issues is equally, if not far more, irresponsible.