Inconsistency-Laura Lukes

Inconsistency
6/22/07
Question #3 p. 453

A person has the choice of being either pro-choice or pro-life, or believing in both sides, not wanting to take a position on just one perspective. Pro-choice is believing that a woman has a right to choose what she wants to do with her body and whether she wants to give a child the chance to live or not. If she wants to get an abortion, she believes she has the right to do so. She also feels that the government cannot tell a woman what is right and wrong about abortion. If a person has a pro-life view on abortion, he or she believes that the child has the right to live no matter how it was conceived. Pro-choice and pro-life views are black and white, but there is a rather large gray area between them. As stated above, some women consider specific parts of each extremity to be verifiable. Such exceptions include rape or the woman’s health, as the Bar Association takes into consideration.

The question as to whether or not the three choices are inconsistent is more dependent on people’s beliefs rather than how the viewpoints are stated. There are three concrete views on abortion. Simply, abortion is wrong and is murder, abortion is the choice of the woman, or abortion is wrong with specific exceptions. Many people find it hard to take a side on this controversial issue due to the emotional nature of life and death. Even the law about abortion in the Texas Penal Code is in the gray area, asserting it is a crime to kill an embryo, but doctors can make exceptions if the woman’s health is in question.

This law shows that rules are clear and consistent, but how people perceive them can be inconsistent. Originally, laws banned abortion because it was dangerous, and the procedure had a high mortality rate. Now it seems the enforcement of the ban on abortion is due to people’s morals.

Overall, laws can be written and enforced consistently, but beliefs on the standards of abortion could be inconsistent. Three different stands on abortion await the population’s opinion, and those are not going to change. Opinions are the inconsistency.