Anti-Abortion ad so wrong on so many levels ...

OK I don't get political much in this blog (ahem ahem ...) but check out this ad before reading on so you know what I'm talking about. Admittedly, it is controversial and politically charged and as such could be offensive to some:

Alliance for Life Ontario

Now ... what offends me here is not necessarily the 'pro-life' message. While I am pro-choice myself, I believe some intelligent and coherent arguments can be made on the other side. It's one of those lovely and difficult topics on which 'reasonable people can disagree'. I myself am of two minds, believing there are some times where abortion is the best of a bad set of choices before a pregnant woman, while obviously being an infertile woman who wanted children, it is not something I can conceive of and would encourage almost anyone to look towards adoption first where possible, rather than abortion. But I think there are many thing which can be seen as 'wrong' without being 'illegal', and I certainly don't go as far as some in seeing it as murder or any such thing.

And that's where the intellectual dishonesty in the above ad comes from. I understand this ad is trying to achieve the 'What if?' thinking ... the potential of an unborn child. And yes, that potential lost is sad should the parents do a good job raising the child, or should they be adopted into a god and loving family. But the reality is, it's not like someone you know and love dying. You aren't one friend short because a child was aborted. The inherent comparison in this ad of an abortion to the loss of a schoolchild, or a young bride, is horrible and insulting to those who ARE here and have lived, and were well on their way to that potential themselves. Not to mention, that 'what if?' thinking can go the other way too - what if this child was born as a result of rape to a victim who has lingering psychological issues due to the attack? Or was the result of incest? What if there were drug issues involved and the best thing that young mother could do was abort the child?

And even if all was well, like any of us, that child could have been born healthy and adopted into a happy home, and still suffer through pain, loss, a short life, or what have you, as is true of all of us. The point is, because we can't know the future, we can't know if it was the best or worst decision for that potential child. It could very well be either. We can only judge by what's good for those living here and now, in difficult situations here and now. And by that standard, yes; abortion, while never a good choice, is sometimes the best one. And I wish Alliance for Life Ontario, who put this ad out, would be as considerate to the young women who ARE here and living, to those who have yet to be born.