How can a vegan be pro-choice?

Question

Both the vegans I know are pro-choice. This doesn't make sense to me. How can you be opposed to killing a chicken fetus (egg) but be ok with killing a human fetus.

I am pro choice, I also eat meat. I can understand how they fit together. I can understand how one can be pro-life and have no problem eating meat. I can respect someone is pro-life and vegan (although I disagree with them on both points) but for the life of me I can not figure out how you reconcile being pro-choice and vegan. Please explain how you reconcile the apparent hypocracy.

Answer 1

I will start by answering a question with a question: How can someone be pro-life if they eat dead animals?

There is a big difference between ending a pregnancy in the first trimester (before the embryo/fetus has any sentience) and what does on in the animal industries. I mean, these animals feel pain and misery for weeks (chickens raised for their flesh), months (chickens imprisoned for their eggs, veal calves, pigs), and years (cows raised for their flesh and their milk).

Now, in the U.S. 10 billion animals are slaughtered every year for food, a number that greatly eclipses the 1.5 million or so abortions that take place over that same time period. Also, not all of those aborted embryos would have become babies--some women may have miscarried anyway. And I believe forced pregnancy--no matter what the species--is wrong. Granted, many women have a say in the activity that caused the pregnancy, unlike the cows, chickens, pigs, et al. who are inseminated. But forcing them to carry a pregnancy they do not want to term can only have tragic consequences.

But for a short answer: I value actual lives over potential lives. I believe we should worry about the humans already here and non-human animals before we worry about a cluster of cells in a woman's uterus.

Answer 2

It is not hypocrisy. First of all, not every vegan is pro-choice, but the ones who are are not necessarily hypocrites.

As many have pointed out, a chicken egg is not fertilized, so the analogy breaks down. Also, most vegans refrain from eating meat and dairy because of the torture endured by the animals and the environmental consequences thereof. A human fetus has not been tortured, imprisoned, shocked, bled, etc. There is some debate on the issue, but most agree there is no feeling at that stage. Aborting an unwanted pregnancy is saving a potential child from an undesirable life. You are comparing us wanting a mother to have a choice to spare her child pain and misery to actually causing that pain to another creature. That is ridiculous.

Also, as many have pointed out, pro-choice is not pro-abortion. Nobody thinks abortions are a great thing, we just don't believe the government should be able to force a woman to have a baby she does not want. No good can come of that.

Answer 3

An egg is not a chicken fetus it is an unfertilized egg such as the one a woman flushes out during her menstral cycle. I am pro-choice simply because I feel it is more abuse to bring a child into this world when the parents are not responsible or capable enough to care for the child. Why force another child into a home full of mental or physical abuse? Now I do have a problem with people who use abortion has a form of birth control. I don't feel these people should ever have kids if they are not responsible enough to learn from their first mistake.
I also don't feel people should get an abortion after a certain stage of their pregnancy. If it takes you that long to decide that you aren't prepared for a child then how do you expect someone to make a decision on wheather to take the kid to the hospital when they are sick, or wheather to check on the baby crying at night, if the bath water is too hot. An indecisive person should not be held responsible for another persons life. I don't think that abortion is the best option but I feel for some people it is necessary and it is up to them to decide.

Answer 4

Not sure... I'm questioning my vegetarianism right now.... I mean... How can I say I love veggies and am a vegetarian when I won't even think of eating a brussel sprout... shouldn't I love all veggies the same? what am I going to do... Thanks, see what you have done?

To be honest, I don't know. While I think you are being a troll, at least it is an intelligent question. I'm not vegan but I do hate to see any animals killed and I'm prochoice.... So I guess that would apply to me.
Hmmmm.... Some would say that humans aren't really animals but that would only make it more dire...

Guess that is one to the hypocratic things I'll have to live with...
well, thank godness I never claimed to be perfect.....

But I also believe in the death penalty... I think monsters should be killed.... I guess I reason that because one, I think that there are acts that make people inhuman by my standards.... and two.... I grew up in a state that has an express lane to the needle.... It's hypocratic too... but,
If you kill someone in my state.... my state will kill you back.
and I don't have a problem with that either.

Answer 5

All I want to know is how can a person say that something is bad without properly educating themselves on it first? As has been pointed out by other posters, Pro choice ISN'T JUST ABOUT ABORTION!!!!!11111one. Come on people, get over yourselves and realize that if it hadn't been for pro choice advocates, we would all be stuck with the inability to choose when and with who we have sex, when we can start a family or to not have a family(I am talking about the use of birth control here, not abortion), if we can have fertility treatments if we wanted kids of our own flesh, having better adoption practices, women wouldn't BE FORCED TO HAVE an abortion, women would be able to have an abortion if their health/life was at risk or if the baby would have a bad quality of life. Pro Choice doesn't automatically mean pro abortion, there is more to it than that. To call someone that supports a woman's right to choose all aspects of her sexuality and fertility a hypocrite is asinine. EDUCATE YOURSELVES, PEOPLE, IT ISN'T THAT HARD, IT IS JUST A FEW KEY TAPS AND A CLICK OF THE MOUSE AWAY!

Oh yea, pro choicers also support proper sex education about the prevention of STD's and pregnancy, so why is that wrong?

Answer 6

Because killing an animal because you like the way it tastes and killing a fetus because you can't provide it a decent life aren't morally equivalent. First of all, in the first trimester, a fetus can't really feel anything, and probably isn't conscious of it's surroundings. Also, forcing every woman who gets pregnant to have a baby, regardless of the circumstances, is oppressive. Vegans don't eat eggs because they are the product of a system that treats animals as nothing more than property, not because they're worried about the chicken embryo (which doesn't exist anyway, since the egg isn't fertilized.)

But I should mention that I know vegans who are pro-life, so there are different viewpoints on the issue.

Answer 7

I totally agree with everyone who answered by writing, who cares about the egg? It's the chicken that laid the egg that we care about and the conditions they are in. Besides that, eating an unfertilized egg just grosses me out. I wouldn't recommend someone eating their unborn fetus either.
On whether or not there is an ethical hypocrisy, it depends on why someone is pro-life or pro-choice. Most people I've met are pro-life because of religious beliefs, and not for any questions on harming the fetus.

Answer 8

I am vegetarian and totally prochoice.

I believe that there are already plenty of unwanted children in this world. Who would pro life legislation effect? Not the rich or middle class, but the poor, young, etc.

What would happen to all these children? Think about all the abortions that are performed every year, all these abortions would be children. I believe there would be an increase in child abuse, possibly the reintroduction of orphanages. I think it is tragic enough that many children grow up in foster homes without parents, and eventually end up aging out of the system. In a way I think pro-choice is pro-life, I am for the children already born into this world that live without the security and love of a family. We need to fix these problems first.

What I find hypocritical is the pro-lifers. How many people that are pro-life have adopted African American babies, sick, drug addicted babies, mentally/physically handicapped, or any children at all? Not many, I also find it interesting that people in America will go all the way to China to adopt a healthy white baby instead of adopting an African American baby in the United States.

I can't think of anything worse than a child coming into this world unwanted by their parents, and even though there are some parents that would love and care for the child after they gave birth, there are many more that would resent and most likely abuse and neglect the child.

We are talking about poor, young mothers that are left to raise these children alone. 52% of women obtaining abortions in the U.S. are younger than 25(and this is an older stat., it probably higher by now.) Who pays for these children, not a struggling unwed mother. "In 2002, 1.29 million abortions took place". Image these all as children, what would happen to them?

Also not all people who receive abortions were irresponsible when they had sex, "Fifty-four percent of women having abortions used a contraceptive method during the month they became pregnant. Among those women, 76% of pill users and 49% of condom users reported using their method inconsistently, while 13% of pill users and 14% of condom users reported correct use." Contraceptives are not a fail safe. All is well and good to say you wouldn't abort a fetus if you are well established(monetary, economically, career, husband/wife) when/if your contraceptive method fails, but it is much harder to do if you are low income, young and uneducated.

It is easy to say abortions should not happen, but think of it in terms of children that would actually be in this world. I won't even go into the statistics about adults that come from families where they were neglected, abused and unwanted. I don't only think we would see an increase of children in foster care, but an increase down the road of criminals.

Answer 9

Because pro-choice is about more then supporting a woman's right to choose an abortion(and not all abortions are "bad").

"Pro-choice describes the political and ethical view that a woman should have complete control over her fertility and pregnancy. This entails the guarantee of reproductive rights, which includes access to sexual education; access to safe and legal abortion, contraception, and fertility treatments; and legal protection from forced abortion. Individuals and organizations who support these positions make up the pro-choice movement."

I would also like to point out that the majority of chicken eggs that people eat are unfertilized, so you can't really consider it a fetus. :)

Answer 10

Well first, the eggs you eat are not fertilized.
Most of the time when people do not eat eggs for ethical purposes, it's not because of the egg but how the chicken who is laying the egg is treated, or they don't eat dairy or eggs to protest how factory farms are run in general.

I am pro-choice, I don't eat meat. Being pro-choice doesn't mean I'm going out and having abortions. I don't see an ethical dilemma. I think every woman should have the right to choose. I might not get an abortion myself, but I think the right should be there. It's not any of my business if their choice interferes with my personal morals.