Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective
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In the west we often speak of “pro-life” and “pro-choice” as if pro-abortion naturally means pro-women. But I wonder, what if we invited Chinese women into the conversation?
I get the impression that for many of them “pro-choice” and “pro-life” aren’t opposing positions. Could it be that the western debate is too polarised, too blinkered?
What gives you this impression?
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Hi Matt …
I think you might be on to something here. What I was trying to say in my FB comment is that I think that our dialog on this issue in the west is entirely too zero-sum on both sides. Both pro and anti abortion people pick winners and losers, when the reality of this issue is that we all lose a great deal when women come to the place when they must choose between their own life and the life of their child. Regardless of what anyone says, women who make the decision to have an abortion feel as though they are in a life or death situation and that they have no other choice. It is not convenient. It is not easy. It is none of those things that anyone makes it out to be. And I wonder if the women of China would have a vastly different perspective to add to ours.
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Would the women of China be better off if abortion were illegal?
Abortion in China is the opposite of a “pro-choice” issue. Women there are given only a thinly veiled choice that is really no choice at all.
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“Abortion in China is the opposite” That’s my point entirely. We think the western debate is a global one. But it is far more parochial than we realize. There are many more sides to this than we realize.
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“I think that our dialog on this issue in the west is entirely too zero-sum on both sides.” Yes, the polarizations make good media fodder but they’re none too helpful for resolving anything.
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Nigel, I am referring to the one child policy and the forced abortions that flow from that. Over there women have no freedom to reject abortion.
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