Kant's Magic Eightball

His Categorical Imperative says: "Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law."

So consider the abortion issue: We can see this yields easily two alternative; no abortions ever or each human has the freedom to exercise control over their own bodies. So what value is Kant? This result depends on how the question is asked. This can be extended to any human body issue, suicide a self mercy termination by another name.

Freedom to exercise control includes the rights, authority, responsibility, and obligation. OK. What about the power to do that which is necessary? Well if they are not addicted, and has the knowledge to know what must be done to overcome the resisting desires, appetites, emotions, chemical drives that oppose the logical directions. It is easy to say go on a reducing diet, while all about is food, food being pushed, that has drug like effects on some of us. 

Each of us with the our own rights, authority, responsibility, and obligation over our own body is something that we could call personnel freedom which many governments and societies try to regulate against, with limited successes. We, as a world population, are in an overpopulated condition, above the carrying capacity of spaceship earth. So we do not need such strangle hold on the people, which was never real anyway. It was just an effort to control that which could not be really controlled anyway. 

Our world populations is above the long term carrying capacity of spaceship earth, based on carbon dioxide levels. This is driving climate change, and will result in the sixth extinction or mass die off. Oh well. The governments are not serious in dealing with this issue; if they were we would have a world one child policy, free birth control, abortions, assisted suicides, and the like. Fertility Clinics would not exist. Births of less that eight months would not receive neonatal care, perhaps there would be no birth assistance... those which were not born alive and health not be resuscitated... Because we can do something does not mean we should. Those things could be regulated to some social contract standard. 

Social Contract is a valid ethical standard. All that know the standard can learn to live with that standard or change that standard to something acceptable to all or more. It is those who wish to impose their opinions on others that have the issues. Our individual freedom comes with obligations to others, as well as responsibilities... to take care of ourselves. 

So after examining ethic, philosophy, and the like it all comes down to this: it is up to us to make the decisions; there is much money to be made by discussing the choices, but in the end, is is still down to each individual to make their own decisions... right or wrong, and to take responsibility for those decisions. But Kant lets us off the guilt for he is all about intent, not results.