Can you be vegan and pro-choice at the same time?

Question

Talk about conflicts of interest here. I'm pro-choice (and actually having an abortion in 2004), and I have been thinking of converting into a healthy vegan lifestyle (considering most of my current diet is gf/cf and seafood free). I don't know if you can be both an animal activist and yet a pro-choice activist at the same time, and I was curious as to if you can, and if there are people out there who are both vegan and pro-choice. Thanks!

Answer 1

Like you, I am pro-choice and a lifelong feminist. I went vegetarian in January 2002 and vegan a few months later. Someone (a fellow vegan) once asked how I reconcile the two, and I said I value actual lives over potential lives.

As I'm sure you know, the pro-choice movement believes in contraception and women taking control of their fertility. We believe in preventing unwanted pregnancy, with abortion as an option if birth control fails. None of us think abortion is "great," and no woman looks forward to having one. I certainly am glad it's a choice I've never had to make. The vast majority of abortions also take place in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.

Now, let's look at animals. Every year in the U.S., 10 billion animals are slaughtered for food. These animals, unlike the embryo/fetus, are sentient beings, suffering for weeks, months, and sometimes years. There are many ethical reasons to be vegan, which I'm sure you know of, so I won't go into that here.

Carol J. Adams is a Christian, pro-choice, feminist, vegan activist. Reading an interview she gave in a magazine set my mind at ease that one can very well be a pro-choice vegan. Musician Nellie McKay is also a vegan feminist, and I believe she is pro-choice as well. At the March for Women's Lives in 2004, I did see some veg activists, or at least an anti-dairy activist.

What I wonder is how someone can be pro-life and still eat dead animals.

Answer 2

That is strange. When I first read your question, I thought it was "can you be vegan and pro-life at the same time?". I was under the assumption that most vegetarians/vegans were pro-choice. Am I wrong? Being that vegetarianism and pro-choice could both be considered a "leftist" idealogy, I would imagine that most vegs are pro-choice.

However, in regards to yoru question, I don't really see any connection. They are two completely different issues, and anyone who says that they are not, has completely over simplified the issues.

For the most part, I think that raising (or should I say TRYING to raise) a child that you were not ready for, unable to properly support, unable to properly care for, can be far worse than having an abortion for both the parents and the child. Once again, I am not saying that abortion should be a first choice answer to unwanted pregnancy (safe sex practices should), but sometimes nature just works in strange ways and no matter how much protection you might use, it is still possible to get pregnant.

If the proper precautions were taken and someone still ends up pregnant when they are mentally, physically, or emotionally unable to raise a child properly, then having an abortion should not be such an issue in most cases. And would actually seem to be the logical/ethical choice.

What this has to do with being a vegetarian/vegan? Not much, as I stated before, they are two different issues. However, if you want it somehow related back to veganism. Here is my take... One of the main reasons that many people state for being veg. is that it is good for the environment. I would say that the extremely large number of humans on this planet at this time is the main reason why the environment has been comprimised. If everyone was "pro-life" and gave birth to a baby every time they got pregant, then the level of human overpopulation would rise even quicker. This would lead to more negative environmental impact and more animals that must be bred and processed to support our primarily meat-eating society.

Answer 3

From reading these answers, it seems people are mistaking "Pro-Choice" with "Pro-Abortion". I don't know anybody who is actually FOR abortion. Abortion is not a fun thing that people love to do on the weekends just for the heck of it. It is sometimes a necessary evil. Being pro-choice simply means we do not want the government to be able to force anyone to have a baby, if there is a safe alternative.

With that, I will agree with those who said there is no conflict. Most people who are vegans are so not because of some vague notion about the "sacredness" of all life, but because of the torturous conditions of food animals in the US. Some people like to characterize the argument like this: "Oh, you don't want to hurt the fuzzy animals, but you don't mind killing a baby." This is an oversimplification and simply untrue.

First of all, there is no "baby" yet. This is of course open to plenty of debate (which I'll avoid here), but there is no real "person" in there. Secondly, your little embryo hasn't been tortured all of it's life just so you can have a burger. It is not the same thing at all.

Answer 4

Depends on how you would think of things:

If No? it's a question of the whole idea of "murder" be it human or animal. The idea being that every living thing has the right to live including animals. Abortion cannot be seen as an option since an embryo is seen as a life in the same way that an egg would be seen as baby chicken. We are equal to animals since we are but animals ourselves. We should strive to share the Earth with the animals rather than trying to control them.

If Yes? humans are separate from the animals and are intelligent enough to make choices as to what is best for themselves (hence medical science in the first place). Humans can be seen as guardians over animals and the Earth rather than consumers and abusers of it. We should strive to better the environment and life for ourselves and all others on the planet in a humane and non-violent way.

Taking the second model, I don't see the conflict in the least bit.

Answer 5

The two are related. If one goes vegan for animal rights issues they are saying the old standbye "Meat is Murder", and if they feel that killing animals for food is murder, they might then also feel that abortion is murder. However, that is where the word "choice" in "pro-choice" comes into play. You can make the choice to become vegan because you feel animals should not be harmed when there are alternatives, choice in abortion comes down to many factors, be it your own health, your financial situation/age/ability to parent at the time of pregnancy, etc, situations where there are or seem to be little to no alternative. So in the end, you can be whatever you want to be, even if the moral implications seem contradictory to some they are logical from your own viewpoint, and sticking to what feels right to you is always the best decision.
To answer your curiosity, I am pro choice and vegetarian for over 10 years, though not vegan.

Answer 6

I'm vegan and I'm pro-choice. I don't see the two as being connected in any way.

I support a woman's right to control her own fertility, by legal abortion if necessary, eg when contraception fails, as it sometimes does.

Whenever this question is raised on V&V several very young people, usually still at school, with limited life experience inevitably answer this question by saying 'protection works, use it or don't have sex or go ahead with any pregnancy'.

It is ludicrous to talk of using abortion as contraception; nobody does that. Abortion is usually a difficult decision and is a hideous experience that no woman goes ahead with lightly.

I have had an abortion too. Years ago I was in a desperate situation and could see no other way out. I have no regrets about the decision I took and never have had, though I wish the situation had never happened. I can tell you that if I had not been living in a country where abortion was legal I would have found a way to have that abortion somehow. That is what happens in countries where there is no legal abortion and it is what happened before abortion was legalised in other countries. Stories of backstreet abortionists and desperate women self aborting with knitting needles, coat hangers and other implements are horrific, but true. Countless women have died in this way.

It's poorer women who resort to such measures - well-off women have always been able to buy abortion, legal or not, and in any case can afford to provide for children.

So no, there's no contradiction. In fact being pro-choice shows greater compassion and humanity in my opinion.

Jenasauras, words almost fail me. Your argument is one of the most self-righteous, ignorant and judgemental I’ve ever come across, totally devoid of any compassion or kindness.

Answer 7

Pro choice is about more then abortion. Pro choicers advocate sex education(proper sex ed, not just telling people to not have sex), fertility rights, birth control availability and rights, abortion being a viable and safe option for women that need them, and a woman not being forced to get an abortion if she doesn't want one.

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Jenasaurus, I watched "Extreme Make Over Home Edition" last night. The family that they were building a house for all suffered from a hereditary disease called Chiari Malformation(the mother had it, and passed it on to all three of her girls, and they will pass it on if they have kids), a pretty nasty disease. Are you saying that a person that wouldn't want to knowingly bring a child into this world with that kind of problem is really the lowest of low? Not all women that have abortions have them because they think a baby will cramp their style, will keep them from partying for nine months, and will ruin her figure. Some really do have legitimate reasons for having an abortion.

Answer 8

If you think that partial-birth abortion should be legal, abortion should not require a mental evaluation or a woman should have the right to as many abortions as she wants without any sort of restrictions or as form of birth control , then no.

If you promote thorough sex education, free birth control and other forms of contraception, and everything else to prevent women from needing or wanting abortions, yes, you probably can.

If you eat a vegan diet for health reasons and not for the animals, you are not vegan, you are a "strict" vegetarian.

Answer 9

I am vegetarian and totally pro-choice.

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 10

Oh wow. A fellow professional-determination vegan gal who's accustomed to what the be conscious "sentience" skill, and is no longer keen regarding the thought of an organism possessing organic and organic existence, as though this is remotely proper to the moral philosophy of vegans. suitable-on.