This article from late January by Michael Gerson gets at some important angles on the abortion debate that I had not thought about before.
It is the antiabortion movement that appeals to inclusion. It argues for a more expansive definition of the human community. It opposes ending or exploiting one human life for the benefit of another. There are heart-rending stories that prevent the simplistic application of this approach. But most of the antiabortion men and women I know have the genuine and selfless motivation of trying to save innocent lives.
Inclusion and expansion instead of exclusion and autonomy–are just some of the concepts he gets at. Worth reading.
Social inclusion, for all. (Including people in wheelchairs at running races.)
by 
The link is not clickable!
The link doesn’t work.
There is a dichotomy here between two values our society holds dear: inclusion and diversity on one hand, and personal autonomy on the other. If, by allowing women to get abortions, we are promoting women’s autonomy, we are also excluding the people who would have been born. This exclusion disproportionately affects people with disabilities, women, and people of colour. We haven’t appropriately grappled with who we are excluding, and the affects it has on our society, (personally, I think it makes our society more coarse and less compassionate) mostly because our society has never gone past the extremes of the abortion debate. (Even after this latest “kerfuffle” with the summer jobs, the CBC had an article which pitted Joyce Arthur against CCBR, which are both about as extreme as you can get.). We are mired in about as antagonistic a relationship, pro choice vs pro life, as you can get.
One value that our society used to hold dear, but I fear is diminishing, is the value of personal responsibility. Both abortion and euthanasia require the assistance of someone, namely a medical professional. Both abortion and euthanasia take a negative personal toll on the person providing the service. It’s the epitome of selfishness, I believe, to ask someone to kill on your behalf. You need a really good reason to do that, and, I’m afraid, 98% of the abortions in this country, and at least some of the assisted suicides, don’t qualify.
Great comment. thanks Melissa.
Andrea Mrozek, thank you for your blog post.Really thank you! Awesome.
Apologies, people. I belatedly fixed the link.