Are you Prochoice?

[Leinad]

Is it a single word? I've always spelt it with a hyphen. Also, I don't think you can define terms like that.

On most issues I would be defined as "pro-choice," I suppose, but on abortion I'm not. For the same reason I'm not "pro-choice" on other things that take rights (e.g. the right to life) from people without their consent. Unlike many "pro-life" people, I am also opposed to the death penalty in all cases, and needless (i.e. most) wars, and thus I'm not being hypocritical by using that term.

The question comes down to when life begins, and thus, whether it's a question of the life of the unborn child, or the liberty of the mother. From what I can tell, if it's a life, it should obviously not be legal, but if it's not a life, it shouldn't be any more illegal than getting a haircut.

The fact is that babies have been born about halfway through typical gestation (21 weeks, 5 days is the record) and survived. It's obvious, therefore, that abortion after that date should be illegal, correct? Could you really make a case against that? (And no, I would not call it "murder." Maybe manslaughter, but punishment isn't the point, the point is saving lives. And I oppose any form of punishment for the women having the abortion, since apparently that's a thing.)

Before that point it's hard to say. The heartbeat starts at about 6 weeks, so I'd err towards that the fetus is a life from 6-21, as well. I suppose it's hard to really tell what "life" is, and starts a more philosophically-oriented debate, but isn't it simple logic to presume, if something may or may not be a life, to, uh, not kill it? Again, could anyone really make a case against that?

I'll also nitpick on the idea of "a woman being forced to raise a child she isn't ready to," because, well, adoption exists. Of course, 9 months of pregnancy is also inconvenient, but not as much as 18 years, and not as much, I would argue, of ending the life of your child (again, it all comes down to when you consider life to begin).

And as others have pointed out, the rhetoric surrounding this issue is horrid. From the "pro-choice" crowd, alleging that supporting the right to life of the unborn is, of all things, sexist, but also from the "pro-life" crowd. If you claim to be "pro-life" but oppose sex-ed and birth control, do you really want abortions to decrease, or do you just want to impose legalistic morality on people? Also, I'd wager that grouping it in with opposing marriage equality as "moral issues" or "religious issues" has scared off many people from supporting this cause, and is probably, in a sense, why it's still as legal as it is.

On a legislative front, I'm consistent with my libertarian views: simply making it illegal doesn't solve the problem, although there should be more restrictive laws (banning it nationwide from 20 weeks onward with exceptions, either nationwide or overturning Roe v. Wade so it can be done at the state level). Educate people that it's a life--in other words, win the philosophical battle. With that, and national sex-education, plus a culture of adoption and helping pregnant women and (should they choose to raise the child) mothers, there would be no need for abortion.

[kcguy]

The snide answer is that any woman who wants an abortion should be served with a restraining order keeping her 50 feet away from the fetus for the entire remainder of the pregnancy.

For a less snide, but more weasling, answer:

One of the things the gay rights movement did right was getting people to publicly identify as gay.  By contrast, I hardly know anyone who will admit to having had an abortion.

I have had one friend who's alluded to it.  From what I understand, she and her husband went through 3 failed pregnancies before successfully giving birth.  In one case, her body naturally aborted the pregnancy.  In the second case, the infant's heartbeat stopped, but she had to have a surgical abortion to terminate the pregnancy.  And in the third case, she decided to have an abortion when sonograms indicated the fetus was currently still alive but unlikely to survive to term.  I have no idea how far along any of these pregnancies were, but I doubt there will be any more abortions.  After two kids, the husband did the snip-snip thing.

[Antonio the Sixth]

One of the things the gay rights movement did right was getting people to publicly identify as gay.  By contrast, I hardly know anyone who will admit to having had an abortion.

This is very true. I think one of the key reasons why the abortion debate has evolved so differently in the US than it has in Europe is because conservatives have been very successful in maintaining a climate of shame around the issue, so that no woman who actually had that experience feels comfortable speaking out. It's easy to demonize people you don't see.