It really doesn’t matter if you’re personally pro- or anti-abortion (or entirely neutral); if you believe women are valuable individuals and deserve equal rights, then you need to support the legality of abortion. When abortion is illegal, it makes women into second-class citizens, walking wombs. Men simply don’t have the physical responsibility of a pregnancy (especially if they flee). And before someone jumps on me with the “it’s biology” argument, just ask yourself how “biological” it is for people to use computers, eat chemically-flavored foods or, better yet, for women to shave their legs and wear makeup. Humans are not limited to their animal attributes and where we can make our lives better than biology (i.e., eyeglasses / contact lenses, artificial limbs, birth control), we should provide the option to people who want it.
Speaking of “wanting it,” is there really some secret advantage to forcing people to have unwanted children – I mean, are the children really better off when the parent(s) can’t really afford to support them (either emotionally or financially)? I’m not necessarily pro-abortion (I think all life is valuable, even germinating seeds), but I don’t think pressuring people into unwanted parentage is good for society at large. No, if you’re personally opposed to abortion, then you should be pushing for better education and access to earlier forms of birth control (personally, I long for a society where everyone is infertile by default and only those who decide to have kids can impregnate or get pregnant, after having their fertility instated).
On a side note, something like 20-30% (that’s one in four or five) pregnancies end in miscarriage. I have no idea why people don’t talk about this, but I feel it’s fairly central to the abortion legality argument – if your body can decide to abort the fetus on it’s own, why can’t your mind? Here’s one article on the miscarriage rate (from 1988, no less): NY Times: Study Finds 31% Rate of Miscarriage
