I refuse to support legislature which allows a baby to be killed, who has developed enough to where if taken from the mother it can become a baby as we can all agree on. It has been consistently proven that a baby born after 25 weeks can survive reliably without remaining in utero (obviously as long as it is fed and nurtured the way any other newborn should be) and live a healthy life, largely free of the effects of premature birth. Let’s start with the argument that a woman should have the right to abort her baby at any point in the pregnancy, from when she gets a positive result on the pregnancy test to the day before delivery. The externality in this case, is the child - note that I said child and not the diminutive “cluster of cells” that gets thrown around often in this debate. One can do as they please privately until there is an externality where another citizen can be affected without consequence. However, I marry a stipulation to that policy that is currently missing in the debate. I believe we must err on the side of personal liberty and have the government intervene as little as possible so people can live their lives free to make mistakes and imbue their own meaning into their lives. I’ve expressed my libertarian leanings in the past and still stick by them. I agree with this statement for the most part. Democrats are keen on this argument though they believe the government should be more involved in people’s lives in myriad other ways - an interesting contradiction. On to why I take issue with the mantra, “My body, my choice.” This is the libertarian argument what a private individual does privately should not be regulated by the government. Believing that one has the right to say that slavery is wrong, never having owned slaves or experienced the hardships faced by plantations owners, is to concede that anyone has the right to make a moral judgment on legislation, regardless of if it directly affects their current affairs. “The people who were fighting against enslavement of black people were a bunch of well-off, white men for the most parthey didn’t live in the South, they didn’t live the lives of plantation owners - ‘this is evil and we are here to stop it’” This is imperative to realize – just because one does not live the life of a person who will be more affected by legislation does not bar them from having the place to make a moral judgement. The incomparable Ben Shapiro said it best in a lecture he gave at the University of Connecticut in response to a woman in line for the Q&A asking, “How do you defend your opinion as a white, well-off, religious male?” To which Shapiro responded, “Evil things are still evil even if I am a white, well-off, religious man.” He went on to compare the debate to the abolition movement, noting the similar disparity between the general lifestyles of opponents and proponents. This sentiment that one who opposes abortion is automatically a woman-hater or is indifferent to the plight of women is truly dangerous to allow to continue to be mainstream. Not to say there is something inherently wrong with accusing the opposition of those qualities, but to do so without equally bold evidence and to predicate your argument on the insufficiencies of the opposition is where the true evil lies. This is where I take issue with the current debate on abortion the most - as soon as one claims the opposition to their ideology is fueled by bigotry with shaky evidence or no evidence, you should start to imagine there is something rotten in the state of Denmark. I held the view that I’ve heard most commonly touted by pro-choicers of, “It’s the woman’s body and should be her decision - any government regulation of what a woman can do with her body is wrong.” I doubt many pro-choice advocates would disagree with that statement more often than not I’ve seen them agree with that sentiment and add the notion that there is a substantial element of anti-woman rhetoric behind the criticism of abortion. Once I was a fiery-hearted progressive with intense feelings of incredulity toward republicans for their, according to my perception at the time, blasphemous lack of support for abortion.
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