I happened to walk into two opposing peotests in the city centre today, and true to form I found myself in agreement with both sides of the argument and yet neither. It didn't really help that I walked into the two sides in the 'wrong' order so that I met the marchers protesting the original march first. The actual organised event was the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children's March for Life, and the opposing side were pro-choicers of various stripes. My thoughts about these two opposing sides have made me think about how as a witch I approach this ethical dilemma and about the things on which I can base decisions as a witch.
I'd better put my cards on the table and admit that except in difficult cases, I am generally against abortion, but my reason would be that I know it can have long-term psychological consequences. As a witch, I also know that the 'ghosts' of our actions can haunt us, and that generally speaking we are best dealing with the consequences of our actions. Naturally I understand that this is a very complicated and emotive issue, and there are many circumstances where a legal and safe termination may be preferable to continuing the pregnancy.
That said I disagree with both the pro-life and pro-choice dialectic. The choice argument places the decision solely in the woman's own domain, and for that reason I think it is too simplistic an argument (let's see the comments that come in this post lol).
I have less sympathy for the 'pro-life' faction for a number of reasons. For a start it is again too narrow, focussing solely on the notional human life of the foetus and ignoring anyone else's life. To my mind it is therefore a misnomer, because the whole Catholic pro-life philosophy is not pro-life at all. Regular readers will know that I am an ex-Catholic and that my opinion is that the empirical facts indicate you cannot trust anything to the Catholic church's care - not an adult, not a building, and certainly not a child.
Nor do I believe that their religion should dictate the law. Lawmaking is another issue really beyond the scope of this post.
I found myself feeling more in sympathy with the feminist protesters as I thought about it, for the specious reason that they were at least less drab than the Catholic marchers. Yet, and yet, what do I actually want to happen? I suppose what I want is for women and their significant others to make informed decisions with access to all the information and to safe medical procedures without fear of intimidation. Yet I remain basically against termination myself.
It took me a while to realise that what I really want is for people to stand on their own two feet and make autonomous decisions based on what matters to them - pretty much exactly what I would wish for all people in all circumstances anyway. The issue has forced me to realise the underlying values I would apply, and I'm delighted to see that taking possession of ones own power is an eminently witchy one! The irony with termination as a witchy ethical dilemma is that of course in an ideal world, the person doing his or her will, will nor need to undo previous actions because they will be intentional. I say in an ideal world, because nobody can always control all variables in life.
You may say of course that I've come out far closer to the feminist choice argument, although I still think it may be over-simplistic. Given my prioritisation of the individual's will, I feel greater horror for the forcing of the 'pro-life' agenda, which is of course divinely revealed and so the mother and the foetus really count for nothing in comparison to the foor-stamping god.
This denigration of the individual can only lead to the denigration of human life. To the contrary, you can always tell someone who is doing their will by their authority, responsibiliry, and joy: the ecstasy of the spirit which is of the Goddess.
Do you see the cobbles on the streets? Everywhere you look, stone & rock. Can you imagine what it feels like to reach down with your bones & feel the living stones? The city is built on itself, all the cities that came before. Can you imagine how it feels to lie down on an ancient flagstone & feel the power of the rock buoying you up against the tug of the world? And that's where witchcraft begins. The stones have life, & I'm part of it. - adapted from Terry Pratchett
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I don't know what to say about this, so I'm going to sit it out.
ReplyDeleteVery wise. Last year's march turned quite nasty. Those friars are trained to kill with their rosary beads!
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