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When someone argues that people should know that having sex can produce a baby, I've often heard a reply something like this:

"Getting into a car doesn't mean you're asking to get into a car accident. Having sex doesn't mean you're asking for a baby."

First off, I'd like to point out that driving is pretty much a necessity nowadays. It's awfully hard to get by without driving, or having someone else drive you places. Sex is not a necessity, however. Someone can get by in life just fine without ever having sex, except for maybe some social discomfort, but that's about it.

So, how do those two scenarios even compare?

The point is that when a person makes a decision that carries with it an inherent risk they shouldn't have to accept the most devastating consequences of that risk if it occurs. The idea is that not having an abortion (i.e. not making the choice that would minimise the amount of damage done to your life and potentially the fetus') is similar to refusing medical treatment after a car accident.

Sex may not be a necessity in the same sense that eating or drinking is a necessity, but it is important. For many people having sex is an important part of shared intimacy and many sexual people become frustrated if sex is denied. Having sex also releases all sorts of 'feel-good' hormones that do their part to prevent people from becoming depressed or stressed. I also saw some research (on an abstinance-only website!) that I've lost but that suggested that having sex with a partner stimulated the release of chemicals that are not released in masturbation, probably because of the endorphins released in the sweat of your partner. It also suggested that women, particularly, who go without sex for long periods of time are prone to depression. Sex may not be necessary to living but it is necessary to living a full and happy life for many people, especially those in loving, trusting long-term relationships or marriages.

Finally, I have got around to replying. Blame the delay on my being lazy, a procrastinator, or all of the above.


Usually, pregnancy is not a life-or-death situation for the woman. If that were the only time abortion was used, you wouldn't see nearly as many people trying to fight it.
It's more like a car accident that was your fault, where someone else was injured and needs medical care, but because you don't want to have to deal with the insurance issues, you leave that person lying on the road, bleeding and unconscious.


*trying to make some sense out of the above, but it's not working*


Well, obviously, sex is a must in marriage. Definitely not condemning married couples here. Unless they had abortions.

But if a woman does not wish to take on the risks of carrying a pregnancy, she does not have to, even if she had sex. I do not have to take on the risks of damage from being hit by a car because I got into one. And people drive away from accidents all the time and are never caught. No one ever caught the people who hit my friend and damaged her kidney. Conceiving a blastocyst or an embryo is not an obligation to remain pregnant.

Is it just me, or did the woman's body and her life completely dissapear in your version of the analogy, except to act as some evil hit and run perpetrator....? It's not like I'd have to loan the person I hit my body for nine months, so screw the insurance. If the kid developed in a week and beamed itself out of the womb, you wouldnt' see nearly as many people trying to fight the pro-lifers. It may not be life-and-death, but it is *life* the only one you get, so don't screw it up. Pregnancy does more than cramp your style. It is a permanant, life altering, body altering experience that shouldn't be forced on anyone.

I do not agree, when you're taking that 60% risk of hurting yourself, you are only hurting yourself, not others with the consequences.

Regardless it still takes time to heal.

And yet Pro-choice supporters will not agree that the main reason there is anything to debate is that we disagree on what the fetus is, person or parasite.

And so is sex.