the whole abortion thing

i'm a pro-choicer, sure. some pro-choicers don't want to be called 'pro-abortionists' or are offended by the term, because they want to stress the importance of having a choice either way, regardless of whether the verdict is to abort or keep a fetus.

i don't think i'm put off by the term pro-abortionist, at least for what it means to me. maybe i'd be annoyed at being called a pro-abortionist by someone who was using it as a derogatory statement, implying all sorts of immorality and whatnot. actually, nah, i wouldn't be offended if someone called me a pro-abortionist, because i think i am.

if you look at the reality of the world today, our planet is overcrowded as it is. there is zero need for more human beings. so what if all procreation were to cease from today on, why... the human race would die out, right? well, with 6 billion some people on the planet, it would be impossible to stop procreation. it's going on all the time.

now, let's think about who these people are, where they live, and their circumstances. very very vaguely, the industrial, or as we like to call ourselves the developed world, are a minority population that uses a majority of the planet's natural (and well frankly, unnatural) resources. that tends to be enough of a visual to me -- we want to contribute more people to this scenario? 

well, that's rather self-righteous. that gets me thinking about the whole religious bent of the anti-choice movement, which is often based on religious belief -- life is a sacred gift from god. yea yea. that whole aspect annoys the living shit out of me, which is why i'll just move along.

so here's my compromise -- i really do think that people who want to raise children should do so, and hopefully they will have the ability and resources to do so. my hang-up is why spawn a biological one when there are literally millions of orphans around the world in need of happy, stable, loving homes.

that's the idealist's answer, isn't it -- adopt, so easy! i understand adoption is not an easy process, oftentimes especially difficult in regions or countries around the world that have very strict adoption policies to protect children from trafficking. i know that angelina jolie or madonna might make adopting children from poor countries look like some sort of celebrity cliche, but i really think they're onto something.

which touches on another point that comes to mind when people want to go the bio-way for child rearing -- i just don't think these hopeful parents have much (or any) of a grasp on the world situation. i think bio-parenting reminds me how happy and willing people are to stay in their little bubble and act like there's no injustice to the world, act as though they don't see the injustice they're contributing to. which circles back to the green planet issue of 'we're rich and wasteful while poor people are suffering' -- popping out another human into a wasteful consumer society... eh, not so good. the flip side is adopting a child in need of a home/parents/stable life from a poor country means bringing them home to this wasteful consumer culture anyways... i'd say there's no answer to that, except that answer is:

we need less people on this planet, not more. how about we let go of the ego and embrace the universal whole?