Why is abortion legal and drugs are not?

Question

It seems the best arguments for abortion is the my choice point of view and the my body point of view. Both of these are applible to drug abusers so why should they not be allowed to choose the path their life takes if this means a life of drug abuse who is the govenment to oppose it, it is their bodies and they are truly only hurting themselves? The same with prostitution. This is not a pro life/choice question. What do you think?

Abrotions are destructive to a fetus and also to some women. Besides even if drugs are destructive they are only destructive to the user and it is their body so who is the govenment to interfere???

Brany T I understand you argument but that is like saying a woman who has an abortion might be so upset she decides to blow up a abortion clinic. One may be caused by the other but are both completely independant choices. No reason to deny a person their choice in the matter.

Emily Rose, you dont need to have even the slightest medical reason for an abortion. If it is your decision because you just dont want a child and you the money abortion is available no questions asked. Who told you you must have a medical reason, no such thing! And who are you to say that no one has a medical use for drugs? If someone feels cocaine eases there panic attack who are you to say it does not besides that point it is 100% that persons body so who are we to say what they can or cannot put into it?

Cigarettes destroy the body but they are legal. Abortion does not preserve the body so how is it the opposite? Why shouldnt I have the choice to destroy my body if I want to it is, after all, my body!

Isnt the whole abortion argument the fact that no one can tell me what is right for my body, the right to abortion is the right to choose what I want to do with my body independant of anything else, I still do not see why this is not applied to drugs. Having a doctor being present doesnt mean something is good or right that is just a stipulation in accordance with that particular procedure. Nothing more.

Emily Rose my point is this if a woman wanted to abort in a bathroom with a hanger there is nothing to stop her and no law to punish her. If I wanted to do Cocaine there is a law to stop me and also one to punish me if I am caught. Isnt this still my body the same one I can choose to abort a fetus with but I can not decide if I want to do drugs?

What is the medical Justification for terminating a healthy pregnancy at will? My will right? My choice, correct? What is the difference?

it may be illegal but there is no punishment and if there is it is rarely if ever employed, besides that the possibilites of a possibility of a terrible outcome is not a reason for something to be outlawed. People drive drunk and kill others all the time but alcohol is still legal. Why shouldnt drugs be the same? Abortion rarely only affects the woman who has chosen to terminate as I previously said.

Answer 1

Well, I do think I get what you are asking.
I am adamently PRO LIFE after researching abortion for years.
Abortion is legal because very selfish people used an ignorant drug addicted foul human being by the name of Norma McCorvey as a monkey in the infamous trial that legalized abortion in 1973, you would know Norma by the name Jane Roe in this case, ROE vs WADE. Norma McCorvey was not pregnant, did not want to get an abortion and was denied access, she was just a monkey.
She, by the way, is NOW a Pro Life hero. And does not mind exposing the lies behind abortion.
Abortion is kept legal for MONEY - these "doctors" make about $2300 per day off of killing babies....they support liberal politicians to keep them in business, so politically it is a win win situation, for those who are morally corrupt.
Drugs are kept illegal because the immoral politicians cannot figure out how they can make money and back it legitimately by legalizing them. After the Regan years that would be a toughie.
Abortion has the whole feminist "my body my choice" and the anti-Christians "keep your rosaries off my ovaries" and the liberals supporting Roe...the media is VERY biased against the PRO LIFE movement. NOONE will show images of what an abortion DOES to a baby/fetus BUT I will! http://www.abortionno.org
Abortion and drugs are wrong BUT with abortion you KILL a baby and INJURE a mother so, dont know what else to say.
Good question though!

Answer 2

It comes down to a matter of interstate commerce, believe it or not.

Drugs are a product (goods) that are sold. Because they are tangible items, they can be regulated by Congress under interstate commerce rules. That's why most drug crimes are federal charges.

The Supreme Court has held that the right to participate (or not) in being pregnant is a fundamental right that cannot be infringed by the government. And it is not an inherently commercial activity, so it is much harder to regulate through interstate commerce rules. That's why there are few (if any) statutory prohibitions at the federal level.

Drugs are a product, and thus subject to statutory regulation. And the Supreme Court has never held that people have a fundamental right to consume whatever they want (oddly enough). I don't know if that argument has ever even been tried before. But until the Supreme Court rules that the right to consume any substance (even if harmful) is a fundamental right, then drugs can still be regulated, as a matter of interstate commerce.

Answer 3

First off, abortion is more along the lines of a prescription drug. You can't legally have an abortion without the assistence of a trained medical professional to determine that the abortion is warrented (i.e. that you're actually pregnant), and that it's safe, and is preformed within legal guidelines (ex. not too late in the pregancy). Similarly, you can't obtain narcotics such as Vicodine unless a medical professional deteremines it is necessary and makes sure it's safe. A great deal of drugs are legally available only with medical supervision, just like an abortion is legally available only with medical supervision.

Second, there's a valid medical purpose for an abortion. One could argue over whether it's morally right or not. Certainly there is a medical justification for a 12-year-old who was raped by a close relative to have an abortion. Whether or not it's in her best interest could be debated, but clearly there's a strong argument in favor of the procedure as well as against it.

Recreational drugs, on the other hand, have no medical purpose. It's never in someone's best interest to become addicted to cocaine or heroin. Powerful drugs produce a dramatic change in the balance of neurotransmitters in the brain that lasts well after the drug has left the system. In some cases, even a single dose can do perminant damage, and long-term addiction often leaves perminant brain damage.

Also, many drugs, particularly hulinagenes, can cause users to become violent while on the drug. In that case, they're hurting the people around them as well as themselves. Furthermore, the effects of most illegal drugs on an unborn child are well documented, and whether or not it counts as a person before it's born, causing a child to grow up with significant developmental problems is not so cool. Again, they're not just hurting themselves. And the thing is that, unlike people who consume reasonable amounts of alochol (i.e. they're not addicted), drug users can't just stop when they're preganant because the drugs have caused chemical changes in their brain that send the into a sever "negative emotional state" if they try to stop using.

Furthermore, individuals addicted to illegal drugs almost invariably become a financial burden on the state. Most will eventually become homeless as all their money goes to drugs and they can't hold down a job. Drug users are at significantly higher risk for many medical conditions, often simply because they don't take care of themselves while their high, but also because they're flooding their bodies with posion on a regular basis. Since they typically don't have health insurance, that costs us more money. And even if they don't utalize any social services themselves, people in an altered mental state generally aren't so good about remember to use a condom, and drug addicts are rarely fit to raise a child, so the state usually ends up supporting yet another foster child for the next 18 years, and often a sick child at that.

So the so called "hard drugs" are illegal for good reason. However, marijuana is clinically proven to be significantly less harmful in every respect than standard cigarettes. The only reason that one's illegal is it would cut into the profits of the tobacco companies. If you ask me, marijuana should be legal and nicotine should not be, but that will, of course, never happen.

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Try that again, and this time actually read what I wrote. What I actually said is that a medical professional must determine that the abortion is warrented is so far as the patient is, in fact, pregant. No where did I say that you need any more reason than that to have an abortion. However, no patient can have an abortion without first having a doctor determine that they are in fact pregnant and that an abortion is the most effective way for them to stop being pregnant. There are certain medical circumstances under which an abortion would not be safe at that time (for example, if the patient has a fever it's not considered safe for them to undergo an invasive medical procedure until the infection has cleared), and abortions are not legal after a certain point in the pregancy unless it is medically necessary for the physical safety of the mother.

A patient isn't allowed to treat their anxiety with cocaine because there is no medical justification for doing so. Cocaine is simply not a safe or effective treatment for anxiety. On the other hand, no doctor would argue that an abortion is not the best way to stop being pregnant. Saying that a patient should be able to chose to use cocaine to treat anxiety is analogous to saying that a woman should have to choice to abort her fetus with a coat hanger in her bathroom, not that she should have the choice to go to have an abortion preformed in a safe manner by a medical professional.

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The point you seem to be missing is that ILLEGAL DRUGS DON'T JUST HURT THE PERSON USING THEM. You absoutely have the right to take out a knife and cut your own wrists. But when you collect the blood in a jar, knowing that it's contaminated with HIV and hepatitis, throw it out your window onto a crowed of people, and then bill the state for both your own medical expenses and theirs, that's not so cool. Recreational drug use is analogous to the latter senario. Try rereading what I've already written and see if you can understand how that's the case.

Incidentally, preforming an abortion outside of a medical setting is illegal.

Answer 4

well i agree and disagree with what you have said...i do not believe in abortion, it is taking a human life....and i do not think we have pro choice for our lives really...we have to go by rules and laws...some drugs will make people different and do things they would not normally do...i think it would be very unsafe to let people use any kind of drug that want to...a person like that may be hurting their self yes but they may hurt others too while doing the drugs they are on...some do not even remember what they do when on drugs and some do not when they are drinking alcohol....i myself do not see anything wrong with marajuana but it is still illegal and so i will not do it anymore....and if the government is so worried about saving lives....then why do they not make patches to quit smoking free...they want to outlaw smoking everywhere....the food that is better for you is usually higher than junk food....there is people in the government that does things wrong too....i just think there is a lot of unfair things going on in this world....just like if you have enough money you can pay your way out of a serious crime...but those that do not have money will get a sentence that they do not deserve or just have to makie a plea of some sort.......sorry to go on and on...

Answer 5

Apples & oranges.

Yes...your body your choice for abortion...drugs a bit of a different story...they are not truly only hurting themselves and are likely to become a burden to the healthcare system, perhaps going on a murderous rampage while high on something, get behind the wheel stoned to oblivion, steal from you and others to feed their habits...and the list could go on and on and on...but that right there should paint the picture for you...at least I would hope so...

Either you did not read my answer or perhaps you didn't understand...some drugs will cause people to have psychotic breaks...make them delusional, make them harm and/or kill others...umm...does that not count as destructive to others???? Or wait a minute, I get a better idea...let's make drugs legal and supply crack to expectant mothers and see what happens.

Answer 6

i think the goverment is allowing abortion to be legal in some states because a long time ago women were being butchered by doctors in backroom offices surgical tools were not sterilized hands were not clean some were not even licsenced doctors i read where women were using coat hangers to abort babies taking dangerous durgs as well i know that a babies life is important as well but it is probably more important to save the womens life for if women do not survive man kind does not survive

Answer 7

This question implies an expectation of consitency in politics and government policy. That is not to be expected.

Anti-abortion radicals call themselves pro-life and believe ardently in the death penalty, for example.

Part of the problem is that people do not take the time to develop a coherent set of beliefs. They simply react to a hotbutton issue: abortion, or prostitution, or drugs and fail to ever consider the basis and implications of their position.

Answer 8

An abortion only affects you. Drugs affect everyone. Example: Stealing to buy drugs, prostitution, driving under the influence etc.

Answer 9

Good point! The same reason why you can enlist in the military at 18, and you can not buy alcohol until you are 21. Truth be told, both are destructive. You can hemorrhage to death and you can also become mentally impaired.It's crazy girl!

Answer 10

if the government could make more money that way drugs would be legal,, like Internet gambling,, Republicans do want to legalize prostitution and pimps,, so they can tax them