An issue I've tried not discussing

Well, for the past few months, there has been campaigning in the streets here in Portugal with political parties about, left and right, movements of all kind giving out flyers, holding functions, throwing concerts and giving speeches.

Though this isn't for some normal election. This is for the abortion referendum that was held today. Voters will cast their "Yes" or "No" vote to the following question (more or less translated into English.):

"Do you agree with the voluntary interruption of pregnancy within the first 10 weeks, which would be performed at a certified medical facility?"

Well, aside from the overly political correctness of that question, it's so incredibly vague given the issue at hand.

Ok, for starters, I haven't posted anything in my blog about this because past experiences have taught me that abortion is a debate issue that causes fights, tears friendships apart and can make people become outcasts. The beliefs on both sides are so entrenched that they simply won't listen to the other side, regardless of how good or bad their arguments are. These debates can get so heated that physical violence has happened from it.

For this very reason, I've been trying to see how to post this without provoking. See, I'm against abortion, however, there's a reason why I originally said that the question on the referendum was too vague.

See, in this country, abortion is illegal except for the scenarios of rape, the woman's health is at risk or there is a terminal deformity in the fetus. Said scenarios are also only applied for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Up til this point, I really don't have a problem with abortion since this is the "lesser of the 2 evils" scenario. You look out for the mother's health in this situation.

However, in the current system, any woman caught having a "back-door" abortion can be arrested, tried and imprisoned up to 3 years. This is an extreme I just can't get myself to agree with. In most cases, the women in question come from low-income families, many times have some form of traumatic experiences in the past and feel as if they are under duress to have this abortion. Having said this, the state should not treat her as a common criminal, the same way they shouldn't treat a drug user as a common criminal. There should be infraestructures set up to support women in need and legislation to even help facilitate adoptions and further educate people so that pregnant women no longer feel like abortion is even an option anymore.

Both the "Yes" and "No" movements are against the current system, but the issue lies in how each side wants to resolve it. The "Yes" people simply want to legalize abortions so that said abortions can be done in hospitals. Thus assuring that certain standards are maintained and that the woman's life is no longer at risk. The "No" people believe that the issue is deeper than just legalizing abortions, and that it needs to come in the form of long-term education and better family planning. The system should be able to inform people about all the different forms of contraception and family planning out there as to get people out of the dark. Right now, here in Portugal, there's a blatant lack of information regarding sex education and family planning. They are just starting to get that message across, but it will take some time.

In my opinion, I don't oppose abortion for religious purposes. I simply believe that we don't know when life begins. There has not been one convincing argument that states "Life begins at this point", and by legalizing abortions, we are, in some respect, trying to play the role of God by giving people the right to end what could be a living human being.

For that reason alone, we should not really touch this subject until we have further evidence that could justify one side or the other. And that is why this has been an issue I've tried to avoid for some time now.