Abortion protest ethics
August 6, 2008
Jeffrey Shallit at Recursivity points to a video of abortion protesters struggling to answer the simple question: “If abortion is made illegal, what should the punishment be for a woman who has one?”
Surprising that they seem never to have thought about it after years of standing on the street with Joe Scheidler holding signs and yelling at passers by that abortion is murder.
Hat tip to Lucas, whose shared items have been a gold mine
Categories: Issues, observations
I loved this idea. And looking back I have never heard of anyone thinking to questions this nor have I ever heard a response. But next I come across a pro-lifer I think I will quietly and politely ask them to see their response.
My personal thoughts on abortion…
How many pro-lifers adopt? How many pro-lifers hand out condoms and proper sex education pamphlets at their protests? Or help teach such material to the community (and not at the high school or late junior high school age)? How many support the morning after pill?
While there likely are pro-lifers that can answer my questions, I have seen few. The ones I have run into seem to want to have their cake and eat it too. And have not thought about the lack of infrastructure for 0 abortion system.
Like Webs, this will be a question I’ll start asking anti-abortion folk.
After years of arguing with people over this issue, I’ve begun to suspect it often comes down to an irrational feeling on the part of many anti-abortion folk that sex is not something you should be able to have without at least some risk of procreation.
Abortion foes are the new Puritans. They operate on the deep-seated fear that somebody, somewhere, is having a good time.
I do believe much of the impetus behind anti-abortion fervor is a form of squeamishness about sex as a form of human pleasure. I also perceive that it is the same crew who decry teenage sex, family planning, availability of birth control, etc.
I often wonder how they find the time for all that protesting. Don’t their kids need some attention?
It probably only adds up to a few hours a day. Everyone needs a hobby, y’know.
I wonder if abortion were made illegal, and making it illegal were made constitutional, whether we would get into an entirely new constitutional argument about the constitutionality of certain punishments for having an illegal abortion. Oh well, who knows what the future holds.
Nick from Avvo