Abortion later on in the pregnancy also carries greater risks for the women. I've heard all sorts of nasty stories from women in the US who have had abortions which have gone badly, resulting in infertility and are now strongly pro-life. Had they had the termination early on, it most likely would have gone without complication.
AFAIK, most US states ban it after 24 weeks or thereabouts; which is also well past the point where, you know you're having it, and you've probably named it besides. It's a wanted birth, as long as it's viable of course.
And on that note, don't forget the cases where abortive procedures are needed, for medical reasons. Miscarriage is a natural consequence, sometimes. There should be no shame in that, nor in cleaning up a stillborn birth. Sometimes the placenta doesn't completely release, leaving material stuck in the birth canal -- even from an otherwise healthy birth. If that material isn't cut off, it will inevitably become septic; and pulling it out will likely cause internal bleeding.
These are not cases where abortion kills a viable, healthy, wanted, already-loved fetus/baby. But they are instances that are becoming unavailable in some states now. The recent SCOTUS decision
is doing violence on women in those states. Hopefully this will not last for long*, but it will still leave millions of women traumatized, disfigured -- or dead.
*The soonest it can be corrected is probably early next year, contingent on Congress gaining enough votes to, you know, actually do something.
Which would imply that homosexuality is nature and not nurture, and to me that was the whole point of T3sl4co1l statement, and what a big part of this discussion is about.
There are plenty of cases where, say the parents, already realized their child showing counter-gender differences by, like, age 6 or 8. Things like clothing preferences, toys, music, whatever. Later, coming out basically something like, "Mom, Dad, I'm gay." "We know. Hungry for dinner yet?"
And there's plenty of ways to show preference. Cross dressing, homosexuality, gender identity, and much more. How much any of those might manifest during childhood, and whether as just a fun thing (momentarily, or persisting through life), whether it's imitating something seen in society, whether a deeper underlying preference -- take your pick.
An upside of humans' anomalously long childhood, is having lots of time to figure out these feelings (or, well... to at least begin to), and the best thing we can do is welcome all types, whatever they decide to present as -- if indeed they choose to present as anything consistently at all (gender-fluid), or nothing, for that matter (asexual). We can just
be nice to people!Transexualism on the other hand is something completely different altogether. It just got tied up with homosexuality because there are many homosexual men who are very feminine and women who are masculine. This is unfortunate in my opinion. I think making irreversible changes to ones body, which can have long term impacts on their health, because of how they feel psychologically is something which should be discouraged. I've heard all sorts of harrowing stories from those who regret it. I know there are also plenty of people who transition and it was positive, but it's something which needs to be treated with caution.
Well, lots of things have been tied up together as "deviant", regardless of how they were deviant. Past discrimination/prosecution of a group is no excuse for present discrimination, of course.
You know why there's many stories of post-op regret? Because pre-op suicides don't tell tales.
The numbers show lifesaving outcomes.
Some background data:
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/blog/the-trevor-project-publishes-new-journal-article-on-trans-and-nonbinary-youth-mental-health/From Canada:
https://www.cmaj.ca/content/194/22/E767Outcomes:
https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(21)00568-1/fulltexthttps://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/article-abstract/2779429Also just to clear up ignorance on the matter, if applicable. Trans therapy is not done lightly. It has life changing purposes and outcomes, and takes time for the patient to adjust to it. It involves, not necessarily in order: therapy, hormones, gender transition counselling, and gender-affirming surgeries. Mind that some surgeries are not permanent in the way you think, but cosmetic. Brow ridge reduction, voicebox sizing, implants / breast reduction, etc. Genital reconstruction is only done after considerable counselling, and often isn't done at all -- especially as people realize penises can be feminine, or vulvas masculine. (Insert
for relevant wit.)
I'm sure some processes aren't conducted so well, and shame on the doctors -- or hospitals or other systems -- that fail their patients. And no, there's no guarantee one won't regret their decisions. Do you regret your <embarrassing life event>? Yeah, there you go. But you gotta live with it. Sometimes that's breaking up with an SO, sometimes that's a disfiguring car crash, sometimes that's a surgery. It's unfortunate, but it happens. All that medical science can do -- at least at the present, until such time as we develop enough instrumentation to individualize medical therapies -- is statistical, on populations. And the science says it works, so that's the best solution for now.
It is, very much, a personal decision, and that's very much something a "libertarian" for example should approve of.
Tim