Abortion

There are many issues that I like to take a wide berth of either through my own lack of knowledge or because I lack the passion to make a sufficiently solid stance on a sensitive topic.

I could quite reasonably use either of the above reasons to give the subject of abortion a miss but with the Republicans airing the issue so regularly and a growing national debate within Scotland I thought I would get on board.


And even though I am somewhat alarmed at positioning myself alongside those crazy Republicans I can't help but use "Thou Shalt Not Kill" as the basis for my beliefs.

I appreciate that unplanned pregnancies can be inconvenient for a family (to put it mildly) but I struggle to disassociate two made-up images in my mind:

(1) Parents who decide to terminate a pregnancy as it has come too early in their life plan or due to relatively minor physical/mental health issues

(2) Parents who take their children out the back and shoot them because they're just becoming a nuisance.

The first set of parents can do so legally and the second set would probably spend the rest of their life in jail. Though why I use the term "parents" I am not so sure as I believe that once a man has 'got a girl' pregnant (for want of a better phrase) then he has ceded all say on what happens to the child until it is born.

However, I definitely struggle to see why the size and form of a baby, coupled with the thin barrier to the world of a woman's stomach, means the child can be treated so differently. For me, once life has been created, it's not for us to take it away.


Even the super sensitive instances of pregnancy as a consequence of rape do not justify abortion in my book. I would draw comparisons with children in orphanages to make my point. Both sets are unwanted, both have the right to a chance of life.


But then, despite these seemingly deeply held theoretical beliefs (which are so easy to dream up sitting here watching football in the background), I find my thinking to be drastically altered when out in the real world.

Have I ever had even a flicker of dismay at the mention of my friends being on the pill? No. Do I agree a woman has the right to choose? Absolutely. Do I bristle when I walk past known abortion clinics? Not in the slightest.

Even my one eye-opening discussion of a real-life instance was interesting for how it revealed how compromised my supposedly principled beliefs are:

An ex-girlfriend of mine had an abortion (years before I had met her I hasten to add). Upon recounting her story, I was far from feeling the need to be outraged, I didn't want to hunt down the doctor that did it and not for a second did my inner monologue let out the words "Yoooou murderer!". My only feelings were of sympathy, a reaction that the Mummy with the pistol in the back garden would be very lucky to receive.


The girl in question, rather than having this child at 17 has now had an education, runs her own business and has a growing happy family. It would take the hardest of hearts to deny someone such a happy ending.


So I guess my own somewhat hypocritical heart is merely confused on the whole issue.