Current Events 002: Abortion debate: the value of human life

With the Nativity Fast approaching in just about a month, we plan to finally return to our study of fasting; but before then, it may be interesting to think about some of the issues that are shaping this election season. The presidential election in the U.S. is happening in just a few days, and in many states, it is happening already.

Likely, most people have made up their minds about their choice at least four years ago. Meddling in such matters is not at all something that I have any interest in doing. Additionally, it seems to me that most people cast their vote based on emotions, not rational and analytical thinking about policy. This is precisely why one side can get away with not talking about policy, while the other side speaks only in hyperbole. Unlike emotions, which can be easily triggered by a meme or a video clip, actual understanding of policy requires deep, complex, and nuanced analysis - something that few voters have the time or desire to undertake. Thus, what matters most in elections are emotional reactions of voters to claims that someone is weird, or a threat to democracy, or that young women - preferably, underage - die because they cannot get an abortion, or because they get killed by an alien, or that aliens are abducting people’s pets and eating them.

As true as some of these claims undoubtedly are, they are not meant to produce an intellectual discussion of immigration policy or the diversity in world cuisine. Rather, these images are used specifically to produce very strong emotions of fear, disgust, and outrage.

The same tendency can be observed in the debate about abortion. It is clear that when one group of people refers to abortion as murder while another as healthcare, they choose not to be in the same rational frame of reference and instead strive to evoke emotional responses. The two camps ensure that they do not engage in an intellectual discussion of any one topic by purposefully talking about two very different topics at the same time, and thus - past each other.

Much has been said on this issue, and much more of the same will continue to be said. It is hardly possible to say anything that has not already been said. But the mere fact that the issue persists - not for a year or a decade, but for millennia - shows that the two sides in this debate are no closer to hearing each other. In fact, it may appear that they are growing further apart with the use of mass media and the unprecedented ability to address virtually the entire planet, should one choose to, or to engage in a feedback loop with only likeminded people, should one choose to do that. One mechanism that enables the widening of this divide is the language being used to talk about the issue of abortion. Each side creates its own narrative that appears to reflect a parallel world which the other side does not inhabit.