Unmasking the False Dichotomy in the Abortion Debate In Defense of the Empowerment of Women and the Entitlement of the Preborn

This paper is an attempt to provide clarity on the moral issue of abortion from three important inter-related perspectives: science, philosophy and law. From each of these perspectives, this paper tries to articulate the moral concerns both of mother and the prebom without prematurely dismissing other opinions that lay emphasis almost exclusively either on the rights of women or of the prebom. Careful analysis of diverse opinions and arguments is made to make a singular and significant point: the abortion debate has been trapped within the either-or dichotomy which forces us to choose between the rights of women and those of the prebom. This approach has dominated the abortion debate for decades without proper scrutiny of this very dichotomy. An attempt is made in this paper to show that this dichotomy is false and there is a need to inscribe the abortion debate within the paradigm of ‘both...and.’ Thus this paper argues that choosing not to interrupt pregnancy voluntarily is a choice made in favour both of women and the prebom. It is a moral choice that one makes both for the empowerment of women and the entitlement of the prebom