Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Case for Compromise on Abortion
Time Magazine Essay ^ | March 7, 2005 | Andrew Sullivan

Posted on 03/05/2005 8:41:59 AM PST by upchuck

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-38 next last
Senator Hillary Clinton led the way in a recent speech to abortion-rights activists. She said something so obvious and so right it's amazing it has taken this long for it to be uttered: whatever side you're on in the pro-choice vs. pro-life debate, we surely all want to lower the number of abortions.

Yeah, right. The Hildabeaste charges full speed ahead towards 2008, desperately trying to align herself just left of right center. Ain't gonna happen.

Please do not kill the messenger (that would be me :) for posting this.

1 posted on 03/05/2005 8:41:59 AM PST by upchuck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: upchuck

LOL...keep your head down, chuck


2 posted on 03/05/2005 8:44:30 AM PST by kingattax ( "Evil triumphs when good men do nothing." -Thomas Jefferson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upchuck

The beginning of a national PR campaign attempting to "realign" the PERCEPTIONS of the voters that the Dem's are "in touch" with RED STATE voters and not really the radical liberals that they really are.

The camel got pushed out of the tent when Bush won the election and they're trying to get the nose back in the tent.


3 posted on 03/05/2005 8:46:33 AM PST by bgsugar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upchuck

The Democrats are lying to themselves if they think their new strategy is better. As soon as you concede that abortion is wrong you've given the moral high ground to the pro-lifers. They were better off pretending that getting an abortion was like clipping your nails.


4 posted on 03/05/2005 8:47:15 AM PST by Jibaholic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upchuck

Compromise on abortion but keep it enshrined as a constitutional right? Yeah sure.


5 posted on 03/05/2005 8:48:44 AM PST by Tribune7
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tribune7

By my reading of the Declaration of Independence as well as the U.S. Constitution, we have asserted that our constitutionally guaranteed rights are those with which we are "endowed by our Creator". The very assertion that abortion is a constitutional right is, in an of itself, a callous blasphemy. The only righteous response is to denounce both this barbaric sacrament as well as its court-ordered enshrinement as a "right". The goal must be to utterly crush any politician of either party who doesn't seek that end.


6 posted on 03/05/2005 9:03:47 AM PST by Emmett McCarthy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Tribune7

Is there a shortage of prospective traditional adoptive parents? If so then the gays-as-adopters argument might have a basis -- but not as a countermeasure to abortion. To the best of my understanding, nobody has been advising pregnant women to abort based on a lack of adoption candidates.


7 posted on 03/05/2005 9:09:13 AM PST by Immolate
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: upchuck

How do we know that any of the statistics on abortion decline are accurate?

The CDC does NOT require the reporting of abortions; it merely compiles data that is provided voluntarily!

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5309a1.htm


8 posted on 03/05/2005 9:45:01 AM PST by LibFreeOrDie (How do you spell dynasty? P-A-T-R-I-O-T-S!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kingattax
My head is down and the flame proof suit is on. LOL

FReepers disagreeing with this article should contact Andrew Sullivan, not me. I disagree with it too!

9 posted on 03/05/2005 9:48:14 AM PST by upchuck ("If our nation be destroyed, it would be from the judiciary." ~ Thomas Jefferson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: upchuck

Fuzzing up the sharp lines of the issue for political gain attempts to replace moral certainty about infanticide with moral subjectivism.

People need to be on one side or the other about human life or you begin to make Solomonic slices of the baby into one camp or the other.


10 posted on 03/05/2005 10:00:45 AM PST by wildbill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upchuck

The "down side" is that their side gives up nothing in this "compromise". All they are doing is changing the subject.


11 posted on 03/05/2005 10:28:53 AM PST by DManA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DManA
All they are doing is changing the subject.

Exactly. "Why not just give up and accept the fact that we've won?" This is a despiration tactic, because the pro-death crowd realizes that their side won by resorting to the non-democratic judiciary, and that after thirty years of abortion by royal fiat, they still haven't convinced enough people of the correctness of their position.

12 posted on 03/05/2005 10:39:39 AM PST by HolgerDansk ("Oh Bother", said Pooh, as he chambered another round.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Tribune7
"we can all agree on a third principle: we would be better off with fewer of them."

You are right not to want to compromise on abortion if you believe it is wrong. What Sullivan says above is a mistake if you're pro-choice. My position on the abortion issue is that is a private choice between a woman and her doctor. It's not the business of Sullivan or society to monitor and wring hands over the number of abortions. But if you are anti-abortion as so many on FR, then the argument above that we would be better off with fewer of them is equally wrong. You would say we'd be better off with none. To sum it up, there is no compromise possible. Either abortions are legal and nobody's business or the state will make them illegal and then it's the police force's business to round up the criminal doctors and wire hanger purveyors.

13 posted on 03/05/2005 10:47:20 AM PST by The Westerner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: upchuck
A key part of their coalition is made up of conservative Catholics who oppose any kind of birth-control devices;

A category into which Mr Sullivan doesn't fall. Of course, "conservative Catholic" is a tag he's unlikely to have pinned on him in his other capacity as a fully paid-up, practising shirt-lifter.

14 posted on 03/05/2005 10:59:11 AM PST by Selous
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upchuck
No compromise here.

It's wrong.

It's a horrendous death for a developing or full term baby.

It still comes down to the same thing ... selective premeditated murder of someone too helpless to defend themselves or speak for themselves - playing god.
15 posted on 03/05/2005 11:02:37 AM PST by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upchuck

The libs *have* to be kidding!!! The baby is either dead or it isn't!


16 posted on 03/05/2005 11:28:42 AM PST by Lauren BaRecall (Can Michael's award for "lack of consortium" be pro rated?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: upchuck
...whatever side you're on in the pro-choice vs. pro-life debate, we surely all want to lower the number of abortions.

Yeah right, Hillary. Abortion is a fee-per-service industry....nothing hits the Planned Barrenhood franchisees' profits like respect for life.

17 posted on 03/05/2005 11:31:29 AM PST by Petronski (I'm not always cranky. Sometimes I'm downright grouchy. Grrr.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: The Westerner
To sum it up, there is no compromise possible. Either abortions are legal and nobody's business or the state will make them illegal and then it's the police force's business to round up the criminal doctors and wire hanger purveyors.

Oh there are grounds for compromise. You can oppose Roe because you love the Constitution. You can oppose tax money going to groups involved with abortion on the grounds that it is "nobody's business". You can support parental notificaton/consent because you don't want abortionists to have privileges real doctors don't have.

We are not a "pro-choice" society, we are a "pro-abortion" one and it makes me sick.

As for me, I'm not in favor of turning girls into criminals for having had an abortion -- at least those in the circumstances in which I was acquainted. So there's compromise on my end too.

18 posted on 03/05/2005 11:54:35 AM PST by Tribune7
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: Tribune7

Exactly. But I'd disagree that there is room for compromise. Right now, the pro-abortion side has won the legal battle. However, the move in this country is toward greater government control through legislation. And the anti-abortion crowd is picking up considerable steam. One side or the other will always be in charge. I frankly believe it's only a matter of time before abortion becomes illegal again. There was a historical loosening of the grip of government in the early 70's. But that noose is tightening with every passing decade. Whether right or left, we will all be trapped in a totalitarian utopia soon enough thanks to the statists who call themselves Republican and Democrat.


20 posted on 03/05/2005 12:01:34 PM PST by The Westerner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-38 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson