Holy ****! Thieves? C'mon Paul. Isn't that a bit extreme?
Personally, I don't think that it is...but allow me to explain.
We are all friends here. I am not posting these things to inflame or outrage. I'm not interested in trading barbs with other INGOers over abortion... BUT, if we are going to have a conversation about these things, let's at least have an honest one.
"The Other Side" argues that a foetus is a complete, individual human being. By that logic, a woman who is pregnant against her will is being forcibly occupied by another human being...literally. That human being (again, literally) consumes her during the time of its occupation. It changes her body, permanently. When it decides to vacate it does tremendous physical damage...which may include death.
If a stranger forced his way into my home, started eating all the food I stored away for winter, and then tried to burn the place down, no one would have any problems with me making him leave my property...by force, if necessary.
I don't see how this is any different for my own body...I mean, the stakes are literally life and death. Remember, jamil, I don't believe in gods and afterlives...this is all I get.
If I find that my body is occupied by an unwelcome, separate individual human being...one that certainly will cause distress to me in the short term, and possibly ultimately be the cause of my death...don't I have the right to expel that unwanted occupant?
I know some people think that all babies are a blessing. The cold reality is quite the opposite.
Women are pressured into sex. Women are coerced into sex. Women are forced into sex. Birth control fails. Pregnancy and motherhood has been used as a weapon and a method of control over women for all of human history, wherever it has been legally allowed. Free access to abortion stops that cold.
My body is sovereign. I decide what goes on in here...not you, not society. If we honestly value individual freedom, this is the way it must be.
This is the best common ground both sides could hope for.
In a world of diverse opinions, all or nothing will get you nothing. Pro and anti abortion will never agree. If the pro side thinks of unborn babies as thieves and the anti side thinks that it is a human with the fullness of all rights immediately upon conception, there is no other common ground.
If both sides can agree that reducing the number of abortions performed is a common goal, that goal could be reached. But neither side seems to be interested in that. The left promotes creating conditions such that higher abortions are inevitable. The right doesn't accept some preventative measures because their preachers tell them is wrong (contraceptives for example).
No. I think the Republicans are just being stupid. And even if they are trying to be strategic, the just right can't use the same tactics as the left. The overton window just shifts naturally left by a progressively promiscuous society. And the left can push that window ever lefter faster by using the kinds of tactics the left uses. And idiots like Pence make their job so much easier. They don't have to labor much to make a straw man of Pence. He does most of the work himself.
This law is why I'm very afraid of "evangelical" type politicians. This is the kind of law they pass when they have the power to do what they want. I really don't think this is strategic. I think this is them just doing what comes most naturally.
I completely agree.