Can we reach a compromise regarding abortion?

[Archivist]

I don't believe that any issue since the Civil War has divided Americans more than the issue of abortion. Is there any way that we can reach a compromise on the issue? Please complete the poll and explain your answers. For example, even if you personally oppose abortion would you be willing to allow legal abortions in cases where the life of the pregnant woman is in danger? Why or why not?

 

[Loudmouth]

I don't believe that any issue since the Civil War has divided Americans more than the issue of abortion.

People were lynched during the Civil Rights Movement. An entire race of people was terrorized and segregated. I think that was a bit worse than the current disagreements over abortion.

The only division is in dealing with politicians who are trying to erode people's constitutional rights.

Is there any way that we can reach a compromise on the issue? Please complete the poll and explain your answers. For example, even if you personally oppose abortion would you be willing to allow legal abortions in cases where the life of the pregnant woman is in danger? Why or why not?

Prohibition of alcohol didn't work, and the prohibition of abortion will not work. Legislating morality doesn't work. If you want to stop abortions then you need to win people's hearts. Using the iron fist of laws won't work.

 

[Belk]

I don't believe that any issue since the Civil War has divided Americans more than the issue of abortion. Is there any way that we can reach a compromise on the issue? Please complete the poll and explain your answers. For example, even if you personally oppose abortion would you be willing to allow legal abortions in cases where the life of the pregnant woman is in danger? Why or why not?

I would say prohibition was more divisive.

I would like to see the pro-life and pro-choice movements both working towards reducing the number of abortions by helping to deal with the reasons women seek abortions. Lack of medical care, lack of financial ability to care for a child, and poor sex education just to name a few.

 

[Paradoxum]

Wouldn't it be good for everyone is reversible sterilization was common from age 10 for everyone?

Either way I'm in favour of abortion for almost any reason at any time.

A fetus isn't any closer to being a person than an adult cow. There's no significant moral attribute.

 

[talitha]

no compromise

 

[AvilaSurfer]

Abortion is murder. Compromise that.

 

[Måns]

It is free will of the woman to chose not to have this child. And there is a lot of things that is murder.

 

[DogmaHunter]

I voted for the last option, primarily because I felt that the other available options were inadequate to include all possible scenario's where I would think that abortion is permissable.

For example, a dear friend of mine just went through an abortion at as-good-as 6 months.
Reason was a serious genetic defect of the child. Life expectancy of that condition is 5 to 10 years only. And during those 5 to 10 years, 70-80% of it is spend in a hospital hooked up to machines with loads of surgery.

As the prognose was nothing but misery for the child as well as the parents, they decided to abort it. And they are devastated that they had to take that decision, but they stand behind it and would do it again.

The option should be available to such situations.

 

[squirrel123]

I picked the fourth option.

I would have picked 3, but I don't think it would be practical to write that into law. I don't believe that a woman should get an abortion if the pregnancy is both healthy and the result of consensual sex. However -
1. I don't believe I have the right to force my moral convictions on other women
2. I don't think it would be feasible to expect a woman to prove that the pregnancy is the result of rape before she gets the abortion. Without any requirement for proof, such a law would be pointless, as any woman who wants an abortion could simply lie and say she was raped and chose not to press charges. (I don't think it would be morally acceptable to require her to press charges in order to get an abortion either).

I would, however, happily accept a law banning late-term abortions (except in cases where the mother's life is in immediate danger).

 

[Aelred of Rievaulx]

Is there an option that suggests that people are far too flippant about responsibility these days but I don't buy the "life begins at conception" notion? How about an "everyone is just wrong" option?

 

[ecco]

Is there any way that we can reach a compromise on the issue?

I think the responses you have received so far answer your question - There can be NO compromise!

Fortunately we have secular laws created in a secular nation. We do not live in a theocracy. No one is forced to have an abortion. No one is forced to believe that a "soul" enters an egg at the moment of fertilization.

"Modern day Christian" views should not be forced on everyone...

​

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/When_does_life_begin? (emphasis mine)

Traditionally for Christians, "a human becomes a person at ensoulment." In both ancient Hebrew tradition and early Christian tradition, ensoulment happened when the child took his or her first breath — the soul being directly equated with the breath of life. However, for these same groups, the quickening (the first movement felt by the mother) some time between 40 days and 4 months depending on the pregnancy was the moment that the pregnancy becomes a potential human. ​

 

[KCfromNC]

People were lynched during the Civil Rights Movement. An entire race of people was terrorized and segregated. I think that was a bit worse than the current disagreements over abortion.

The only division is in dealing with politicians who are trying to erode people's constitutional rights.

Yep, this was my first reaction as well. And it isn't like some didn't have an issue with the war in Vietnam either. Abortion is a manufactured controversy by comparison.

Prohibition of alcohol didn't work, and the prohibition of abortion will not work. Legislating morality doesn't work. If you want to stop abortions then you need to win people's hearts.

The research also shows anyone looking to reduce the number of abortions should be fighting as hard as they can to get comprehensive sex ed taught to all middle school students in the country. For some reason, though, the people typically opposed to abortion are also opposed to sex ed. Sometimes people are their own worst enemy.

 

[ecco]

The research also shows anyone looking to reduce the number of abortions should be fighting as hard as they can to get comprehensive sex ed taught to all middle school students in the country. For some reason, though, the people typically opposed to abortion are also opposed to sex ed. Sometimes people are their own worst enemy.

Don't ya know, contraception is interfering with "God's Plan".

 

[KCfromNC]

Don't ya know, contraception is interfering with "God's Plan".

Guess teenagers having abortions is part of the plan as well, then.

 

[Archivist]

Abortion is murder. Compromise that.

Abortion is not murder. Murder is the illegal killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Abortion does not meet the definition.

 

[Dave-W]

Abortion is not murder. Murder is the illegal killing of a human being with malice aforethought.

I would submit it IS murder.

"killing of a human being"
A conceptus/fetus IS a human being. I do not care what the LEGAL definition of a human being is. Remember that less than 200 years ago blacks and native Americans were not legally human beings either. It was perfectly legal to kill either with malice. Can you tell me that was not murder?

"malice aforethought"
Can a person get an abortion without planning it out before? Do you not have to make an appointment and then travel to the clinic? That all fits "aforethought." If you are expecting the "tissue" removed to die, that covers the "malice' part.

 

[ecco]

I would submit it IS murder.

"killing of a human being"
A conceptus/fetus IS a human being. I do not care what the LEGAL definition of a human being is.

This was not always your religion's belief.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/When_does_life_begin? (emphasis mine)
Traditionally for Christians, "a human becomes a person at ensoulment." In both ancient Hebrew tradition and early Christian tradition, ensoulment happened when the child took his or her first breath — the soul being directly equated with the breath of life. However, for these same groups, the quickening (the first movement felt by the mother) some time between 40 days and 4 months depending on the pregnancy was the moment that the pregnancy becomes a potential human. ​

 

[RDKirk]

Abortion is murder. Compromise that.

Actually, society does compromise on murder.

 

[Loudmouth]

The research also shows anyone looking to reduce the number of abortions should be fighting as hard as they can to get comprehensive sex ed taught to all middle school students in the country. For some reason, though, the people typically opposed to abortion are also opposed to sex ed. Sometimes people are their own worst enemy.

That has been my observation as well. Abortion appears to be a part of a larger movement to legislate morality.

 

[Loudmouth]

I would submit it IS murder.

Then you need to convince potential mothers and society at large that this is the case.