Worldviews Collide

Abortion.

That's an ugly word for an ugly procedure raising ugly emotions in an ugly struggle. There's nothing nice about abortion. When a woman decides she needs an abortion, though, it is her absolute right to obtain one.

This post is to extend my heartiest salute to "Molly", the feminist writer behind the blog Molly Saves the Day. Molly recently reacted to South Dakota's abortion ban with a unique post on her blog: For the women of South Dakota: an abortion manual. Molly's piece is not a self-abortion guide; rather, it's a medical reference that might be useful to people wishing to set up an illegal abortion clinic after the fundies drag us back to the alley.

Molly's piece is a powerful act of dissent for which I have utmost respect.

Naturally enough, Molly's well-placed bomb stirred up a hornet's nest. Here is a piece from ProLifeBlogs reacting to Molly's dissident act. It is written by another intelligent, articulate woman, American Life League's Judie Brown, and is entitled Send in the Clowns: the farce, the lie and the unwavering commitment to kill. Judie Brown's piece repeatedly gets to the crux of the matter, which is that she considers abortion to be the murder of a person. This is based in the religious belief that a soul exists independent of the human brain.

As far as I'm concerned, a person is defined by the presence of a soul, but this soul is an emergent property of a complex brain. No brain, no soul, no person.

The difference between the Mollys and the Judies of the world is that the Judies think they have a lock on truth which they are willing to force on others.

I can't stand that.