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  Abortion
Parent Issue
Social Issues 
ISSUE DETAILS
ContributorRP   
Last ModifiedRP August 23, 2004 07:30pm
DescriptionThe argument between women's rights and cellular/fetus rights. When does a "human" start to exist? At conception, implantation, heart function, brain function, birth, or some other time?

INFORMATION LINKS
Birth or Not: Help us Decide, a "Real" Abortion Vote  Discuss
Red Flags [in abortion polling]  Discuss

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NEWS
Date Category Headline Article Contributor
May 07, 2024 06:05pm Proposed Legislation Louisiana lawmakers reject adding exceptions of rape and incest to abortion ban  Article RP 
Apr 09, 2024 11:50am Legal Ruling Abortion in Arizona set to be illegal in nearly all circumstances, state high court rules  Article RP 
May 10, 2023 01:55pm Proposed Legislation Alabama would prosecute abortion as murder under newly introduced bill  Article RP 
Mar 13, 2023 05:00pm Proposed Legislation 21 South Carolina GOP Lawmakers Propose Death Penalty for Women Who Have Abortions  Article RP 
Feb 09, 2023 11:25am News Biden administration braces for ruling that could ban abortion pills  Article WA Indy 
Jan 19, 2023 12:00pm Report Mothers in states with abortion bans nearly 3 times more likely to die  Article RP 

DISCUSSION
[View All
17
Previous Messages]
 
I:6738IndyGeorgia ( 3906.0425 points)
Fri, June 24, 2022 03:34:12 PM UTC0:00
Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey have been overturned by the Supreme Court in their opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health. [Link]

 
D:1RP ( 5506.7227 points)
Fri, June 24, 2022 04:08:46 PM UTC0:00

 
I:8766Pennsylvanian ( 404.1051 points)
Fri, June 24, 2022 04:43:55 PM UTC0:00
To me, pro-life versus pro-choice as social issue -- not to mention the perennial philosophical question of when life begins -- misses the crux of the matter and changes no minds. I'd think good social policy would aim to reduce the need for, and occurrence of, abortion through the roots -- improving access to contraception and sex education, addressing poverty etc., without pouring gasoline on the fire such as we see today. That's where efforts ought be focused because, even as someone who generally favors reasonable access to safe, regulated abortion, I can very plainly see that it is not an outcome that anyone actually aspires to. The key policy questions in my mind are what precipitates the need for an abortion and what, if anything, can be done about it.

 
I:6738IndyGeorgia ( 3906.0425 points)
Fri, June 24, 2022 04:52:18 PM UTC0:00
That's a lot of nuance, substance, and logic in those comments, Pennsylvanian.

 
D:1RP ( 5506.7227 points)
x3
Fri, June 24, 2022 05:13:34 PM UTC0:00
Many of the people who want the abortion ban also want bans on contraceptives and sex education.

 
I:8766Pennsylvanian ( 404.1051 points)
Fri, June 24, 2022 05:44:49 PM UTC0:00
RP: Many of the people who want the abortion ban also want bans on contraceptives and sex education.

Nuance on this issue and very many others, as we can see, is a casualty of consumer-oriented, commercialized, commodified culture warfare combined with systematized extremism. That's where we are.

 
I:1038WA Indy ( 1790.9733 points)
Fri, June 24, 2022 06:15:05 PM UTC0:00
Pennsylvanian:
Nuance on this issue and very many others, as we can see, is a casualty of consumer-oriented, commercialized, commodified culture warfare combined with systematized extremism. That's where we are.

I'm probably proving someone's point about polarization, but I've sensed more nuance in discussions with pro-choice people than with the pro-control crowd.

 
D:6086Jason (11889.0225 points)
Fri, June 24, 2022 07:48:26 PM UTC0:00
I've never been a single-issue voter, but going forward being anti-choice has to be thoroughly disqualifying. My spouse and I have discussed starting a family, and any daughter we might have will already be burdened with exceptional difficulties in life just by being born with a second X chromosome. Abortion access will still be robust in California, but for how long? What's to stop the next GOP Congress from passing a national ban? The current SCOTUS will come up with whatever is ideologically convenient to say it's not actually a matter for the states because reasons. They're never going to be held accountable and have no reason to be intellectually honest.

 
Un:9757BrentinCO ( 6338.6216 points)
x2 x2
Fri, June 24, 2022 10:21:44 PM UTC0:00
I think this ruling is a good ruling and will make America a better place.

We live in a disposable society and life shouldn't be disposable. Even life that is not perfect (as all are) or perfectly planned (as some are).

 
I:8766Pennsylvanian ( 404.1051 points)
Sat, June 25, 2022 02:01:08 PM UTC0:00
I respect the viewpoint. But I have doubts that any sort of paradigmatic view of disposability, if such a paradigm exists, will change as a result. Basic philosophical viewpoints will remain. For those truly desperate and subject to bans, underground, illegal, and unsafe options will remain (and, in the absence of a nationwide ban, differences across states will remain). Fights over things like abortion simply relitigate symptoms without addressing driving issues, which also still remain. With apologies for the crude analogy, for those truly concerned about morality or cultural mores (for which I generally don't think there are good answers in public policy), I'd think a ban on abortion would be more akin to taking an Advil to mask the pain of terminal disease (in the same way permitting access to abortion can itself become a crutch on such issues as poverty).

Whether one believes the root problem is poverty, education, access to protection, prevalence of rape and incest, or a crisis of morality or the commodification/disposabilification of human life, or perhaps some combination of some or all of the above, I generally think abortion is but the symptom, not the problem.

 
D:7CA Pol Junkie ( 4947.9873 points)
x2
Sun, June 26, 2022 03:17:13 PM UTC0:00
BrentinCO: I think this ruling is a good ruling and will make America a better place.

Making abortion illegal does not make it go away. This is much more true in the post-Roe America than it was pre-Roe. People will get medical abortion pills through the mail. The difference is that women won't have the option to see a doctor in person and they will have to pretend it was a natural miscarriage if they have to get treatment for complications.

An honest approach to reduce the number of abortions would receive broad support on the pro-choice side. The "problem" is that doing so would empower women by increasing access to birth control including "morning after" pills and provide financial and logistical support for women who could not otherwise afford a child.

 
D:1RP ( 5506.7227 points)
Fri, December 16, 2022 06:47:00 PM UTC0:00

 
D:1RP ( 5506.7227 points)
Wed, May 17, 2023 03:33:23 PM UTC0:00