Old Stuff -- Why Abortion isn't the be-all end-all of evil

Abortion is a terrible thing, but a necessary one. We, as a society, permit abortion because banning it outright poses a greater risk to society than allowing it. It tells women that they are still, no matter what, not the ultimate forces that decide their lives; it encourages “coat-hanger” abortions, a dangerous self-administered procedure as likely to cause sterility and/or death as it is to terminate the pregnancy; and the social impact of millions of unwanted children would be staggering: millions of extra children in abusive homes and in the care of the state — the adoption system is already severely overwhelmed (see the UK, where several thousand children were put up for adoption last year immediately after birth, and less than 10% of those were adopted), and further burdening the system will simply reduce the capacity to care for the children already in it as well as those who will be inevitably thrown into the system. A life that has no feeling, no emotion, no capacity for pain is a small price to pay to not leave children hungry or afraid for their lives.