A decent society is one in which people are not forced to give birth to children they are going to have to be personally responsible for at great material cost for decades.
Fetuses are not children or people, they are cells developing inside people, that might become a child or might not.
Do I care about the fate of fetuses? Only if their mothers want to give birth to them, because I care about those mothers, who are people.
Otherwise, an unwanted fetus is no more than a developmental anomaly that is best removed and destroyed.
Human Life is a term for a principle that is used by anti-abortion fascists, it is a principle they allege to be more important than the actual lives of human people.
If a woman wants an abortion because the resulting child would have a developmental problem, is that a moral issue? Not at all, in fact I would refuse to be involved in a procreative enterprise with a woman who did not believe that abortion was a good idea under such circumstances.
If a woman wants an abortion because she plans to go to college and caring for a child would limit her success, is that a moral issue? Absolutely not.
If a women want an abortion because the resulting child has the wrong eye color, is that a moral issue? Absolutely not, that is a perfectly fine reason. Any reason that does not have bad downstream consequences is fine.
If a woman wants an abortion because the resulting child has the wrong sex, is that a moral issue? That is only tricky because it has downstream social consequences, a society could be created in which there would be far more of one sex than another, and that might be a problem. However, in some sense, it is not that individual woman's problem, and the law needs to be fair to all woman equally in that regards, and not just limit sex-choice abortions to rich people who can go somewhere else.
If a woman wants a child, but the putative father does not, is that a moral issue? If the man uses any kinds of threats or coercion to force an abortion, it would be, and for him alone. If the man freely offers money, a job, etc., accepted or not, would that make an abortion immoral? Not at all--similar to the college situation. What if the man offers money, a job, a marriage, etc, for there NOT to be an abortion, but the woman has the abortion anyway? It was her choice to make, perhaps his offer wasn't very good after all, and she has the final responsibility and the final authority over what her body is bearing. Such a man has a limited opportunity to make even better offers.
Is there some developmental stage at which abortion is immoral. No, not while the fetus is still within the mother's body.
Where does the inkling to restrict others from having abortion come from? Not from any real concern about people, but from some sense that people need to be controlled by a Higher Power and molded to suit the Higher Ends of that Higher Power. It was and is religion, and a peculiarly fascistic religion, from the get go. The Higher Ends are always to the exclusive benefit of elites, who don't have to worry about such restrictions for themselves because they can evade them, but they appreciate an endless supply of slaves, wage slaves, cannon fodder, and useful rogues enhanced by abortion prohibition on their lessers.
Forced birth was a key part of Slavery. Women in slavery would frequently try to refuse to bear another child into slavery (a perfectly fine reason to seek abortion btw).
These self-aggrandizing elites are great at applying familiar song and dance, to whip up "Human Life" sentimentalism among those who actually bear the burden of the abortion prohibition. Such whipped up sentimentalism against one's own best interests has been the essence of religion since the dawn of "civilization," which has rarely had much actual decency.
People who understand decency and human rights should know better.
Here is a detailed and convincing analysis of the increasing popularity of abortion rights by year, age, sex, education level, and cohort. Abortion prohibitionism is indeed empowered by anti-democratic forces and institutions (as I just said). Support for abortion for protective reasons (to protect mother's health, because of rape, or birth defects) has always been very high (70-90%). Support for abortion for any reason the mother chooses (my position) has risen from 35% in the 1970's to about 50% today. Younger and more educated people strongly tend to support more abortion rights. Less educated men favor abortion rights somewhat more than less educated women, but that pattern reverses for those with above a high school education (where support for abortion rights is higher among both sexes, but especially among women).
Fetuses are not children or people, they are cells developing inside people, that might become a child or might not.
Do I care about the fate of fetuses? Only if their mothers want to give birth to them, because I care about those mothers, who are people.
Otherwise, an unwanted fetus is no more than a developmental anomaly that is best removed and destroyed.
Human Life is a term for a principle that is used by anti-abortion fascists, it is a principle they allege to be more important than the actual lives of human people.
If a woman wants an abortion because the resulting child would have a developmental problem, is that a moral issue? Not at all, in fact I would refuse to be involved in a procreative enterprise with a woman who did not believe that abortion was a good idea under such circumstances.
If a woman wants an abortion because she plans to go to college and caring for a child would limit her success, is that a moral issue? Absolutely not.
If a women want an abortion because the resulting child has the wrong eye color, is that a moral issue? Absolutely not, that is a perfectly fine reason. Any reason that does not have bad downstream consequences is fine.
If a woman wants an abortion because the resulting child has the wrong sex, is that a moral issue? That is only tricky because it has downstream social consequences, a society could be created in which there would be far more of one sex than another, and that might be a problem. However, in some sense, it is not that individual woman's problem, and the law needs to be fair to all woman equally in that regards, and not just limit sex-choice abortions to rich people who can go somewhere else.
If a woman wants a child, but the putative father does not, is that a moral issue? If the man uses any kinds of threats or coercion to force an abortion, it would be, and for him alone. If the man freely offers money, a job, etc., accepted or not, would that make an abortion immoral? Not at all--similar to the college situation. What if the man offers money, a job, a marriage, etc, for there NOT to be an abortion, but the woman has the abortion anyway? It was her choice to make, perhaps his offer wasn't very good after all, and she has the final responsibility and the final authority over what her body is bearing. Such a man has a limited opportunity to make even better offers.
Is there some developmental stage at which abortion is immoral. No, not while the fetus is still within the mother's body.
Where does the inkling to restrict others from having abortion come from? Not from any real concern about people, but from some sense that people need to be controlled by a Higher Power and molded to suit the Higher Ends of that Higher Power. It was and is religion, and a peculiarly fascistic religion, from the get go. The Higher Ends are always to the exclusive benefit of elites, who don't have to worry about such restrictions for themselves because they can evade them, but they appreciate an endless supply of slaves, wage slaves, cannon fodder, and useful rogues enhanced by abortion prohibition on their lessers.
Forced birth was a key part of Slavery. Women in slavery would frequently try to refuse to bear another child into slavery (a perfectly fine reason to seek abortion btw).
These self-aggrandizing elites are great at applying familiar song and dance, to whip up "Human Life" sentimentalism among those who actually bear the burden of the abortion prohibition. Such whipped up sentimentalism against one's own best interests has been the essence of religion since the dawn of "civilization," which has rarely had much actual decency.
People who understand decency and human rights should know better.
Here is a detailed and convincing analysis of the increasing popularity of abortion rights by year, age, sex, education level, and cohort. Abortion prohibitionism is indeed empowered by anti-democratic forces and institutions (as I just said). Support for abortion for protective reasons (to protect mother's health, because of rape, or birth defects) has always been very high (70-90%). Support for abortion for any reason the mother chooses (my position) has risen from 35% in the 1970's to about 50% today. Younger and more educated people strongly tend to support more abortion rights. Less educated men favor abortion rights somewhat more than less educated women, but that pattern reverses for those with above a high school education (where support for abortion rights is higher among both sexes, but especially among women).
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