Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Worth engaging

This column by Pia Hansen claims that the abortion debate is hardly worth entering anymore. Her claim is that no one talks about reducing the number of abortions.

I'll give her this, she wrote her column without ignoring the pro-life and pro-abstinence arguments. I was impressed with here openness. I can't say the same about the comments from the left bank.

But Katrina made her point with reason and eloquence. Someone from the other bank took issue with her comparison of slavery and abortion. Here is her response.


Huckleberries Online: Best Column You'll Read on Abortion from Either Side
In both cases, a segment of the human population is being systematically dehumanized for convenience/comfort/well-being of others. And the arguments for slavery were not that dissimilar from some of the arguments for abortion:

"*Although a slave/fetus has a heart and a brain, and is human from the biological perspective, a slave/fetus just is not a legal person under the Constitution. The Supreme Court made this perfectly clear in the Dred Scott/Roe v. Wade decision.

*A man/woman has the right to do whatever he/she pleases with his/her personal property, the slave/fetus.

*Both the social and economic burdens which will result from prohibiting slavery/abortion will be unfairly concentrated upon a single group: slave-holders/pregnant women.

*Isn’t slavery/abortion really something merciful? Isn’t it really better never to be set free/born than to be sent ill-equipped and unprepared into an environment where one is unwanted, unloved and bound to be miserable?

*Those who believe that slavery/abortion is immoral are free to refrain from owning slaves/having abortions; they should give the same freedom to those who have different moral beliefs.

*Accordingly, those who believe that slavery/abortion is immoral have no right to try to impose their personal morality upon others by way of legislation or a constitutional amendment.

*The claim that slaves/fetuses are like us is simply ridiculous; all one has to do is look at them to see that they are completely different.

*The anti-slavery/anti-abortion movement is in fact a small band of well-organized religious fanatics who have no respect for democracy or the principles of a pluralistic society." (Chris Atkins)

Yes, slavery IS ridiculous. But so is abortion. And one day, I hope, everyone will recognize that.

By my count, her comment alone did in every argument from the left bank.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What Pia got right - no debate on the issue. There. That was all.

Why no debate? Because the Supreme Court took the matter out of the public square and invented a sex-specific right to murder that was, until now, inviolate. Only the right of a mother to kill her child pre-birth held that inviolate status, immune from political debate.

The 1st amendment's protections of speech didn't have that total protection - see McCain-Feingold, for an example. Ditto religion - religions that believe in polyandry are out of luck in the USA. The Second is in even worse shape. And on and on.

But the Satanic Sacrament of Moloch, the killing of a child, that was inviolate.