Abortion

On one occasion in the 1960s when abortion was still illegal, I witnessed, while visiting a surgical suite as an OB/GYN resident, the abortion of a fetus that weighed approximately two pounds. It was placed in a bucket, crying and struggling to breathe, and the medical personnel pretended not to notice. Soon the crying stopped. This harrowing event forced me to think more seriously about this important issue.

That same day in the OB suite, an early delivery occurred and the infant born was only slightly larger than the one that was just aborted. But in this room everybody did everything conceivable to save this child's life. My conclusion that day was that we were overstepping the bounds of morality by picking and choosing who should live and who should die. These were human lives.

Ron Paul is pro-life. He rejects Roe v. Wade. Life begins at conception. The unborn have rights.

A society that readily condones abortions invites attacks on personal liberty.

That said, a federal ban on abortions is as unconstitutional as its federal legalization. Viewing abortions as an act of violence against a human being, and the enforcement of civil and criminal law constitutionally reserved to the states, this is the responsibility of the states to restrain, not the federal government.

My argument is that the abortion problem is more of a social and moral issue than it is a legal one.

Laws alone do not change society, they are a reflection of society at that time; he recalls abortions were done at his residency in the 1960s in opposition to the law.

So if we are ever to have fewer abortions, society must change again. The law will not accomplish that. However, that does not mean that the states shouldn't be allowed to write laws dealing with abortion. Very early pregnancies and victims of rape can be treated with the day after pill, which is nothing more than using birth control pills in a special manner. These very early pregnancies could never be policed, regardless. Such circumstances would be dealt with by each individual making his or her own moral choice.

The more difficult the problem, the more local the solution. One-size-fits-all answers in cases as personal as these are impractical.

Additional points brought up, which you'll need a copy of the book to read:

• Inherent injustices and contradictions in the current system: a frightened teenager may be charged with homicide if she kills her child on delivery, yet a doctor is paid for a third-trimester abortion, or accused of murder if the newborn inadvertently survives.
• Deregulating adoption markets to maximize aid
• Ethics of tax funds supporting abortions
• Correlating and opposing stances on abortion amongst pro-choice, pro-life, pro-war, and pro-state
• Supreme Court and Constitutional Amendment approaches to life
• Abortion's prohibition in the hippocratic oath
• Advice to physicians, and his 7-point program for pro-life MD and medical personnel
• Many more finer points; this is one of the longer chapters.