As a vegan, my stance on abortions may come as a surprise…

Vegan activists fight for animal liberation and animal rights. With a goal that speaks so highly of animal lives being saved, why wouldn’t one want the same for human life? Most other vegans I know would consider themselves equal to that animal. Although I have a respectful and understanding attitude toward those who are or have requested an abortion. There are a couple of reasons why I feel I need to clarify my justification for it. Please read carefully, every sentence I tried to write with importance and usefulness to understand my clarification of why I believe it is okay to be accepting of human abortions in this modern day.

The Basics: Why I support human abortions.
1. Abortions terminate potential life before it occurs
2. Human population control (humans are currently overpopulated on earth)
3. Maintain quality of life (for yourself, others, & the planet)
4. Adoption is an option (one of many kids desperately need a loving home. comparable to adopting animals)

Potential Life Abortion
The global limit for abortion is 24 weeks into pregnancy. However, many occur well before this limit. I am mentioning this because a fetus can only feel pain and sensation when a neuroanatomical apparatus is developed, which requires 26 weeks [4]. For reasons such as this, I must agree with Tom Head, from ThoughtCo, who says “Even if we were to assume that every embryo or fetus was just as sentient and just as much of a person as any other human being, an argument that is not supportable on the basis of scientific evidence, then the lack of knowledge and intent would still be enough to classify abortion as something other than murder.”[5]. I could go on and on listing science-based facts, but the truth is you have to do your own research (which is very easy these days) and come to your own conclusion.

The Unnatural Argument
The one reason that made me second guess my decision to support abortions was the fact that abortions are NOT a natural process. However, we have to remember that we are overpopulated due to unnatural occurrences that we have accepted into our culture.

Unnatural occurrences that enabled us to overpopulate and increase our ecological footprint in an inefficient manner:

• Factory farming in order to mass produce at cheap consumer costs/availability Specifically, the genes are not natural/random when the farmed animals are mating, antibiotics steroids and other hormone injections are used, artificial insemination (pregnancy) is used, and separation and grouping of the species are applied.
• Pharmaceuticals & Hospitals (Life dependency on technology, narcotics produced in industrialization to extend the life…)
• Traditional Industrialization (mass production of processed goods)
• Pollutants (auto exhaust, chemical leaks, fecal pools, garbage…)
• I’m sure there’s more… but those are the main ones I can think of.

The InterAcademy Panel Statement on Population Growth, circa 1994, stated that many environmental problems, such as rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, global warming, and pollution, are aggravated by population expansion [1]. Facts, such as this, lead me to accept abortions as a solution to one of the many negative consequences that we have from the actions that we inflicted on the natural world. One important rule to live by will always be to live with the earth, not just on it.

The Religious Argument
There is one last thing I need to touch on with respect to religious views. It is my understanding that one of many gods someone believes in requires you to respect what they have provided you with. I am talking about our home and the home we share with nature and so many other beings. Earth is our home… It is our responsibility to accept the negative consequences our actions have caused on this home we are supposed to take care of for ourselves and God’s other life forms. Unfortunately, humans are not looking so great when it comes to respecting and caring for this earth. Until we all learn how to control this and live with the earth, I do not view abortion as a disrespect to a god.

Adoption
The world has 20 million children who need to be adopted [2]. Adoption is a great thing to do and can change a child’s life for the better. It is also important t keep in mind that 80% of the prison population are adults who were once in the foster care system [3]. Why they ended up in a prison, guilty or innocent, is another issue. The point I am trying to make with this is that we fund prisons and the inmates there. There are many reasons I believe we should be asking “why” prisoners ended up in jail (refer to this post). Human adoption isn’t much different than adopting or rescuing stray animals instead of buying a new one from a puppy mill or pet store. There is often a lot of focus on fixing the current issue so it does not get ignored and grow into something unmanageable.

Stay Strong
Please do not feel guilty if you did not want to have a baby just because of the opinions of others. You made a personal decision and if others can’t respect that, then that is their issue, not yours… I say this because I really hope to see the percentage of people struggling with depression or post-traumatic stress symptoms, after an abortion, decrease. We must have a form of trust in humanity that individuals want to make the best choice possible and that they are compassionate beings who care about each other’s quality of life. If we are able to clarify that this is a personal choice, we might be able to provide one another with the support and respect that one would require in this situation whether they choose abortion or not. I believe it should be a basic right for this person to have the freedom to decide their future & their life choices.

References:
[1]  “joint statement by fifty-eight of the world’s scientific academies”. Archived from the original on 10 February 2010.
[2] https://www.abbacanada.com/page.aspx?pageId=4
[3] http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/a35860/adoption-statistics/
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1440624/
[5] https://www.thoughtco.com/is-abortion-murder-721092