"I'm Personally Opposed to Abortion, But Won't Impose My Beliefs on Anyone Else"

Vanity | 2/28/03 | Humanae Vitae

[jwalsh07]

Very good post VRWC.

[Terriergal]

"I'm Personally Opposed to Abortion, But Won't Impose My Beliefs on Anyone Else"

Let's just insert some other moral wrong in there and see how that line of reasoning holds up:

"I'm Personally Opposed to [MURDER, RAPE, THEFT], But Won't Impose My Beliefs on Anyone Else"

[Dog Gone]

My only point is that it is perfectly fine to be adamantly opposed to abortion while recognizing that other people take a different view. The majority opinion on this thread is going to be that abortion is such an important moral issue that the pro-life position should be imposed on everyone else.

I'm not in disagreement with that, although there are some very serious obstacles to doing that. Until that happens, all anyone honestly can say is "I'm personally opposed to abortion, but I can't impose my beliefs on anyone else."

[VRWC_minion]

There is a big difference between a 8.99 month partial birth abortion and a morning after pill or an abortion after a first missed period.

I feel differently too but I'm not wise enough to determine the exact dividing line. Without that wisdom the only safe place to draw the line is conception.

[jwalsh07]

There is a big difference between a 8.99 month partial birth abortion and a morning after pill or an abortion after a first missed period. I feel differently about the two.

What is the difference?

[Aquinasfan]

I feel differently about the two.

Feelings aren't decisive. Reason should be.

[VRWC_minion]

Should the government make laws about who can have sex with whom?

False assertion. We do in fact have many laws regarding who can have sex with whom.

[Egregious Philbin]

Feelings aren't decisive. Reason should be.

Is being against murder or abortion in the realm of reason? I'm not so sure... (for the sake of argument)

[biblewonk]

Do you feel one is OK and the other not?

I feel that killing a baby at 8.99 months is blatent murder but morning after pills and BC's, which cause miscarriages, are not. So does a brand new sperm/egg cell have a soul and a spirit? That is a moral/religious question. Does a man have a soul and a spirit? Another religious question. I believe a man does and I don't know but seriously doubt an egg gets a soul/spirit when a sperm penetrates it. But science can't even prove that a man has a soul/spirit.

[jwalsh07]

"I'm personally opposed to abortion, but I can't impose my beliefs on anyone else."

That is the most dishonest position to take.

Honest positions to take are, you are pro life and the unborn should not be killed, you are pro abortion and believe the baby deserves no protection or you believe that somewhere in the continuum of human development the baby should be protected.

The I'm pro life but you can kill'em position is drek.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Four questions:

1. Do you support, or oppose a rape exception to any scheme of law outlawing abortion.

2. Would you have forced the raped 9 year old in Nicaragua (discussed on several threads) to bear a child.

3. Do you require absolute, beyond all reasonable doubt proof that a pregnancy to term will kill a mother before you will allow an abortion.

4. Do you oppose giving a rape victim a D&C, or abortifacient drugs like a morning after pill immediately after a rape, on the basis that a human soul may have been created?

I'll be asking these questions of every GOP primary candidate for office in my area, and I hope others will do the same.

[VRWC_minion]

As it relates to abortion, I don't think it should usually be legal. I believe in some exceptions.

Then as the issue is stated here, this doesn't apply to you. It is an issue for those who think abortion is wrong for them because such life is precious but not wrong for others. With the possible exception of your exceptions your posistion is not inconsistant.

[AppyPappy]

For one thing, a body. With an abortion, we KNOW we are killing a baby. With the morning after pill, we really don't know.

[MrLeRoy]

it becomes pretty hard to justify their [government] having the ability to make the moral decision about when a life begins or when a sperm/egg combination is a living human being.

If government can't decide which entities have rights, it can't do anything. When do you think a human organism acquires the right to life?

[biblewonk]

Therefore the combination of two alive things create something not alive?

The question is whether it has a soul and a spirit.

[biblewonk]

you're argument is totally without merit because you are apparently genome challenged.

I visited the DU today and your attitude belongs over there, not here.

[Protagoras]

I feel that killing a baby at 8.99 months is blatent murder but morning after pills and BC's, which cause miscarriages, are not.

Euphemisms like "miscarriages" are not useful. Nor are qualifiers like "blatent".

Your basic probelem isn't with the killing but with the timing, at least it seems that way. If not please explain.

[Procyon]

I personally abhor genocide, but I don't feel it proper to impose my morality upon dictators of other countries (like Hitler and Mao and Stalin and Saddam). /sarcasm>

Statements like that confuse a common behaviour of eating meat yet not participating in the hunt or slaughter with taking a moral position.

The fact that I am restrained from preventing abortions because of the rule of law doesn't mean that I agree with the law.

However, I support candidates who pledge to make abortions not only rare but illegal.

[Egregious Philbin]

I believe Hentoff is wrong because he ignores due process and informed consent but I respect his position.

Hentoff's position is certainly more problematic for the pro-choice, anti-death penalty liberal, as you say. I think it may also complicate things for some Christians - isn't taking a life at either end akin to playing God? I would certainly oppose the death penalty as it was practiced in Illinois - where as many were exonerated as executed.

[ex-snook]

"The truth about abortion is it is the taking of a human life."

Hits the nail right on the head. Unfortunately clergy of all demoninations ceased giving that message a long time ago and now the number of women who have had an abortion and those who were part of that decision, are now a critical voting mass. "and they wanting to justify themselves ....."