A Communist Argument Against Abortion

Medals of the Soviet Order of Maternal Glory

Marx didn't talk about abortion in his writings. It wouldn't have been a very big issue in his day, though abortions were certainly being carried out. I believe that he did have an extra-marital affair that resulted in a baby. His friend Engels married the mother so as to spare her and Marx embarrassment. There is certainly no indication that abortion was ever considered. Still, Communism was around a long time before Marx, and some Communists have believed that women do have a right to abortion if they so choose. This would be the position of nearly all the Euro-Commies today, but it certainly wasn't the position of the likes of Stalin or Ceaușescu or Hoxha, who banned abortion outright. Mao was also very much in favour of large families. I believe he not only banned abortion, but all artificial contraception also. Of course, Deng reversed that policy after Mao's death and actually enforced a régime of mass contraception and abortion. China is now suffering the results of this policy, as it risks demographic collapse unless present trends can be reversed. So, we see that there has been no single or consistent Communist policy on abortion. Rather it has swung from extreme to opposite extreme, depending on who happened to be in power at the time. But, I believe there is a logically consistent argument against abortion, based entirely on Communist principles. Communism, as the name suggests, is about communal human life. It rejects the Liberal idea that the individual is the center of the universe, and that the communal must give way to the private consumer. Abortion is, above all, a weapon of the individual consumer against the need of the community to survive into the future. In short, the Liberal consumer does not want to be bothered by ideas of national or tribal duty. Such duties are an affront to him. All he wants from the community is police services which protect his private right to enjoy his private property. This is the American Ideal. So we have a war between two world views. One world view is the one that we have had since we were apes in the trees, i.e. the Communal Ideal. And, the rival world view is the one that came up in the 18th century with the so called Enlightenment - Cogito Ergo Sum! I think therefore I am! In other words, I am my only guarantor of reality. Not God and not community. Just myself as an isolated will. Over the last century or so, we have been hearing more and more vociferous demands from the Liberal, individual, consumer for the abolition of all communal understandings and duties that tend to limit his individual enjoyment of the means of consumption at his disposal. These means of consumption are now also to be understood as to include his body, which is to be regarded as his own private property to be enjoyed as well as he wishes - or in so far as his monetary fortune will allow. A baby, which may be the result of that enjoyment must, under no circumstances, impress itself on him or his future enjoyment. Babies are a call back to the communal, which our Liberal consumer so desperately wishes to remove himself from. In short, babies demand Communism. As the old saying goes - It takes a whole village to rear a child. This is what the Liberal most fears - that he may be called on to give up his time and resources rearing another man's child. Indeed, the true Liberal would not even give of his time and resources to rear his own child - hence the demographic collapse we see in Europe today. And we have seen the results of this Liberal consumerism all over Western Europe. The traditional populations of these lands are now in demographic collapse. Still, our Liberal consumer sees no problem or contradiction here. Those of the Native Populations who are aborted - or not conceived at all - may just as easily be made up for by the mass immigration of non-Native populations into Western Europe. The Liberal does not mind if his coffee is served to him by alien races - just as long as his coffee arrives on time and doesn't cost him too much. Because his only idea of the future is the span of his own lifetime. Once he is dead, and no longer enjoying his private consumption, then the whole universe has ended as far as he is concerned. The Liberal laughs at the idea of Gaelic Ireland. Does that put more money in his pocket? If not, then it is a worthless idea. The day we accept that abortion is a matter of individual choice is the day that we accept the end of the human community and the hegemonic reign of the atomized Liberal consumer. Man as an island. Lost in a primordial abyss of self aggrandizement. The great struggle for human consciousness collapses into mere infantile masturbation. Abortion means the end of the communal - the end of Communism. If we call ourselves Marxists, then we must fearlessly view the world though the prism of logic. There is no logic to saying an abortion can be carried out at 12 weeks, and not 6 weeks. This is an entirely arbitrary judgement - only based on the squeamishness of the Liberal consumer at any given time. Either we say that we can kill anybody at any time, or we say there is an objective time from which the right to life begins. There can only be one such logical time - and that is the moment of conception. The beginning of a new life. All else is arbitrary. Now, as Communists, we do accept that the right to life is conditional. There may be times when we will take the lives of Enemies of the People. This is very necessary. There may also be times when we take the life of a child in the womb - as in those very rare cases when the mother's life is in danger. I think it likely that any Communist society will rule that the mother's life should be protected before the life of the child. Though there may be circumstances when this is not the case. But, whenever we take a human life, as Communists, we fully accept that we have done something very grave and profound. We must never lie to ourselves that a baby in the womb is not really a human life. We must accept the full responsibility for our actions if we take such a life under extreme circumstances. Regarding the lie of "Woman's Choice," in reality, the vast majority of women who go through abortions do so precisely because our society has stolen real choice away from them. Almost no woman would kill her baby, unless she was under threat of social exclusion and poverty. And why is she under such vicious threat? Why only because our Liberal, individual, consumer demands that his private enjoyment of his private money must not be upset by the communal call of mothers and babies. Here we have a vista of final horror. One in which the human, the communal, the higher consciousness - all that is natural - is vitiated and made unlawful by none other than the vicious self aggrandizement of the solitary Liberal consumer. That breaker of human connection reduces the entire universe to his own self image - disaggregated grains of dust floating in cold and empty space. In short, a healthy Communist society requires womenfolk who are healthy and ready to bring forth life to fill the ranks of the Communist Collective. The Communist society must regard all mothers as Heroes of the Revolution, and provide them with the means to rear their children in health, safety and security. And any Enemies of the People who dare to complain that "their money" is being given to mothers and children must be crushed without mercy. The Communist Collective is built by Mothers, Fathers and Children.