What is the vegan stance on human abortion?!
I can see how it depends on which beliefs you value more, but I am pesonally fascinated by the division. I think my friend has a point that if you value all life to the point of protecting animals then abortion should also be outlawed.
So is there a unified stance on the issue or are there different schools of thought?
Answers: I have a friend who is very pro-animal rights and as a consequence of these beliefs is also very against human abortion or 'pro-life' I guess (he draws a very stong line against loss of life). He considers it outright murder. He is not christian or religious. Otherwise he is very socially liberal on things like gay marriage and despises "social conservatives". Most of the other vegans/vegetarians I know, which are mostly women, are all 'womans rights' and are also very socially liberal. I assume they are pro choice.
I can see how it depends on which beliefs you value more, but I am pesonally fascinated by the division. I think my friend has a point that if you value all life to the point of protecting animals then abortion should also be outlawed.
So is there a unified stance on the issue or are there different schools of thought?
Personally, as a vegetarian strong pro-lifer.. I would think the two SHOULD go together, like it does with your friend..
but the reality is "vegans" are a greatly diverse group of people.. diverse in their eating habits, diverse in their political views, diverse in their REASONS for being vegan.. and definitely diverse on the pro-life vs pro-murder (sorry, couldn't help myself LOL) debate..
Hope this answers your question...
I am pro-choice.
I would never dream of aborting myself, but there are others that would.
I'm not one of those nagging vegans that try to convert everyone else to my beliefs. It's enough to know that I am making a difference, however big or small it may be.
There is no vegan stance. It's up to the invidual person. I am pro-choice up until a point. I've met vegan who were on both extremes.
There is no vegan stance on abortion. We are individuals who form our own opinions about myriad social and political issues.
Pro-Life... :)
Vegans have many differing views on abortion.
I, personally, believe, that women should maintain their right to abort safely. Look at it this way, abortion can either happen safely and legally....or...women have abortions illegally and with alternative methods.
In countries where abortion is illegal many women still use coat-hangers, throw themselves down stairs, punch themselves endlessly in the abdomen, etc. All of these practices not only endanger their fetus but it endangers their very own life by the threat of internal bleeding, infection, and otherwise. Therefore, it's much better to allow safe abortion practices.
He's pro-life because he'll never have to worry about it. Ask him again when he has a 15 year old daughter that gets pregnant or is in a dire financial situation with no insurance and can't afford a baby but his wife is pregnant. He can just afford to be judgemental now.
That is an excellent question, I've often wondered the same thing. Kyle said it all very well. Personally I am undecided, but I'm leaning towards pro-choice. It is definitely a morally and ethically gray area similar to essential medical testing. But I don't believe there is a unified position on the matter.
There is no 'vegan stance', any more than there is a meat-eaters' stance. Vegans aren't all of one mind, like any other group there is a wide range of views, beliefs and ideas.
I'm vegan and I'm very much pro-choice; the two things have nothing to do with each other.
I'm pro-choice because I value life - the lives of the thousands of women who would die without legal abortion, and the lives of the countless numbers of women who die when they cannot obtain abortions.
In countries where abortion is illegal, women have abortions anyway - dangerous, life threatening and sometimes fatal abortions. This used to happen in countries where abortion is legal, and still does where it is legal but in reality hard to get.
It is women without the money to buy safe abortions - something wealthy women have always been able to do, legal abortion or no - who died and continue to die. I care about their lives so I'm pro-choice.
I'm old enough to remember the time before abortion was legal in my country. I remember the whispers about a friend's teenage cousin who died following a botched illegal abortion, and friends par-boiling themselves in hot baths because they feared they were pregnant.
Stories of knitting needles, coat hangers, and other implements being used by desperate women to self-abort are not just horror stories, they are true
I am strongly in favour of women being in control of their own lives and destinies, and part of this is control over their own fertility. With the best will in the world contraception sometimes fails. It is ludicrous to talk, as some people do, of women using abortion as contraception - abortion is a hideous experience.
I'm vegan because I choose to minimise my contribution to animal suffering. I'm pro-choice because I value the lives of women and their right to choose.
So - no vegan stance; we don't actually have a rule book. You'll get answers from vegans covering the whole spectrum of possible views.
Induced abortion has been in practice in all cultures for ages. religions have despised them and many have declared them to be a 'sin'. In Vedic Mantra, "BhrooNa Hatya', as it is called, is declared as one of the three most heinous 'homicide's.
Irrespective of the social moorings of your pro-animal rights friend, or the eating habit of your vegan friends, the issue has to be looked into as to whether humans have got an inherent right to prevent the birth of another human.Right to procreate, is not mentioned in any national laws but right to life (fundamental right in some and statutory in others) includes the undefined human right of begetting children. No totalitarian regime even has attempted to rob the right of people to procreate, but in the economic interests of the nation, attempted some incentives for small family and disincentives for large family. There are some countries who provide incentives for procreation in keeping with their national policy.
Again, the right to procreate, can be said to include right Not to procreate.One can, by choice, elect not to have any progeny. But there are laws in some countries that would deem the refusal of one spouse to have progeny when the other wants, as inflicting mental cruelty and may deem such refusal to be a ground for divorce. No organ of State, including judiciary has any power to order anyone to have children.
But the question remains: Whether after pregnancy, the inherent human right not to have children, extends to preventing the foetus to mature and be born. Here the 'pro-choice' and anti-choice lobbies come into conflict.
Every pregnancy is fraught with risks. When every delivery takes place, the medical and para-medical personnel heave a sigh of relief, when they have saved /ensured well-being of both the mother and the new-born. When a choice has to be made, in medical conditions, at the time of delivery, that only one of the two lives can be saved or reasonably expected to be saved and a definite possibility of endangering the life of one exists, then the doctors too are faced with the dilemma of making a choice. In this case invariably the choice is made in favour of the mother. No court is reported to have questioned this reasoned and reasonable choice made by the ob-gyn specialist, on the ground of violation of the human right to life of the yet-to-be born child.
Drawing the analogy, the 'pro-choice' lobby can not get a blanket power of veto, which even the State, Judiciary and medical specialists do not possess. The pro-choice allowance (not right) can be only in rarest of the rare circumstances of endangering the life of the mother, the unborn child with some incurable medical ailment/deformity (which no presently-known medical technology can remedy and if the child is born would render its own life extremely miserable) and the like. Corollarily, the compassion to all beings, which every human shall possess as the most desirable trait, whether one is vegan or not (I respect vegans, and I consider their moorings as the ultimate non-violent survival,)shall not extend to proscribe intoto any such contingency too, as described above.
Hindu law recognises the coparcenary right of an unborn child too to the extent of even re-opening all partitions of the properties of the hindu Undivided Family, effected during the period of pregnacy. Thus, while the unborn child too can be said to enjoy the same human rights as those already born including the mother. Vesting such a veto right in mother, would bring about chaotic social ethos.
I'm vegan, and I lean towards pro-life (with the exceptions of women who have suffered rape or incest).
Vegans might all be vegans, but we're all individuals - we have different opinions on pretty much everything except animal rights.
depends on how you use the word vegan - and the person themselves.
some people follow a vegan diet for health reasons
others are careful not to even use any animal products
some people are Christian and some are not, some are pro life and some are pro choice and some are pro abortion.
no i don't think there is a unified stance.... i'm a vegetarian because i don't beleive in animals suffering and being murdered so i can have meat when i don't need to have any. i don't believe that in abortion the embryo suffers. a fly's brain contains more cells than a "baby" in those first weeks after conception yet we swat them without thinking twice! i am against abortion after a point though, like after the first trimester when it does start to feel pain and be aware of whats going on. but before that, i think it's the womans choice. i believe in examing the quality of life too. it really all depends, but no i don't think there's a unified school of though. good question though.
I am 100 percent pro-life. I used to be pro-choice, but then I did some research and now I am completely against abortion. It's a personal choice I guess.
There really is no vegan stance. There are vegans who are antiabortion and there are vegans who are pro-choice. I would argue that someone who considers himself/herself pro-life should be vegan, but many so-called pro-lifers eat meat and support the death penalty and favored the invasion of Iraq.
I've been asked how I reconcile my pro-choice and vegan stance. First of all, I value actual lives over potential lives. I value the humans here and the animals here more than I value a cluster of cells in a stranger's uterus. I also believe that every child should be wanted and loved. Second, I believe in preventing unwanted pregnancy in the first place. Many folks who call themselves pro-life oppose contraception. Third, there are roughly 1.5 million abortions every year in the United States. That's how many animals die every HOUR to be consumed as food.
I'm grateful it's a choice I've never had to make. I hope I never do have to make it. And I wish that no woman was faced with an unwanted pregnancy. But it's better that such women have legal options to end it early (and 90 percent of abortions take place in the first 10 weeks) than to risk harm to herself with an illegal abortion or have a kid she doesn't want and abuse it.