Both sides of abortion debate ignore opposite viewpoints

This letter is written in response to Will Rabb’s letter titled “Abortion eliminates unborn children’s voices, lives” in the Oct. 30 issue of The Daily Beacon. Rabb’s letter is the trigger for my response, not the reason.

The fact of the matter is that the question of whether or not abortion should be permissible is a moral one, which means that it comes down to what one believes to be morally right or wrong, and beliefs cannot be argued. They simply can’t. You can never persuade anyone in believing something they do not believe, which causes the debate over abortion to become ridiculously loaded with emotion and language that makes for very bad debating (which is, after all, necessary).

First of all, anti-abortioners (I just flipped a coin to decide whom to start with). Stop pretending that those for abortion rights want to systematically eradicate children. It’s complete nonsense. Calling it a holocaust does an immense disservice to victims of a real systematic eradication. No one is out to just generally kill unborn babies through legalizing abortion. The thought by itself is absurd. Stop pretending that those for abortion rights want to establish a lifestyle of making babies and then getting rid of them as if it was nothing. Abortion is traumatic and certainly not enjoyable, and no one gets an abortion for fun. Stop using the argument that any given aborted child might have accomplished greatness, because any given aborted child might also have been the next sociopathic mass murderer. The argument goes both ways, and speculating about a road not traveled is a waste of time.

Now, those for abortion rights. Stop pretending that those anti-abortion individuals are deaf to extreme circumstances. Just because they think abortion is a bad thing on principle does not mean they do not have sympathy for rape victims, for instance. Stop pretending that those against abortion are hypocrites for possibly supporting the death penalty. An unborn fetus and a convicted murderer or rapist are not the same thing. In the words of Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules Winnfield of “Pulp Fiction”: “Ain’t the same ... ballpark. It ain’t the same league, it ain’t even the same ... sport.”

And finally, Will Rabb. Firstly, don’t call an unborn child a citizen. Citizenship is granted upon birth and not just in the United States. That is a fact, quite unarguable. Secondly, don’t drag the question of health care into the debate over abortion. Moral issues (like abortion) should not be argued alongside economic issues (like health care). They don’t mix well because they need to be argued very, very differently. Lastly, you’re in Tennessee. Don’t tell us how fantastic Tebow is. It still hurts.

Thomas Wahrlich

Junior in journalism and electronic media