Bush Administration proposes new law to protect Anti-Abortion Doctors

[quote name='mykevermin']New to me, anyway: http://religionandpolitics.ytmnd.com/[/quote]

That was awesome. Good find.

As for what Bush is proposing, I have mixed feelings on the subject. On the one hand, despite being pro-choice (or pro-death or anti-life as some people call it, makes no matter to me) I do think that someone in the medical field that is morally against abortion should not be forced to do one. I was brought up to respect the beliefs of others (and before anybody goes off on a "what about bigots and racists?" rant, I mean within reason) whether I agree with them or not. On the flip side of the same coin, I think a hospital should be able to ask an applicant doctor or medical practitioner if they do have a moral conflict with performing an abortion and if they do, the hospital should have the right to deny them the position based on that answer if they think having doctors that would not perform an abortion may adversely affect their bottom line, and they should have the freedom to do so without interference from the government.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']elp, you're usually a solid foundation of middle-of-the-road reason in the vs forums, even when we disagree.

To say your wording and points here are letting me down is a grievous understatement.[/QUOTE]
This discussion tends to bring out the least logical in everyone. But it's stll an oldie but goodie. ;)

[quote name='camoor']
I think your last sentence is interesting but for me it doesn't ring true. Because if your father had worn a spermicidal condom you wouldn't be here either. Are contraceptives therefore just as evil?[/quote]
Not comparable. Saying every single sperm must be protected because it's a potential human is a stretch. Saying that a small human with a brain, bones, organs and a heart-beat that WILL be a human like you and I in a few months must be protected is
(should be) a no-brainer.

To me that doesn't count as a human life, it's just a multi-cellular organism with the potential to become human. And last I checked there's no clause stating "We the multi-cellular organisms..." ;)

Then, by your own definition, you yourself aren't a human life (no offense meant). What I mean by that is, I think everyone is defined by that statement. When does a multi-celled organism become a human? That's highly debatable, as we see here. But when does a human stop becoming a multi-celled organism? Imo never.

Furthermore, this discussion leads into trying to define what being human means. Which complicates it, because if being human, in this case, ends up being defined by something worth saving, I think upon observing people - the majority of people the majority of the time probably should just be called multi-celled organisms. But unfortunately, in our society, even the very worst of humans, still get to retain the title of human; thus having more protection and rights than our "multi-celled" younglings.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']Not comparable. Saying every single sperm must be protected because it's a potential human is a stretch. Saying that a small human with a brain, bones, organs and a heart-beat that WILL be a human like you and I in a few months must be protected is (should be) a no-brainer.[/quote]

An embryo does not have a working brain, bones, organs and a heart-beat. So again it comes down to whether you believe a "miracle" happens the instant the sperm joins with the egg. Calling an embryo a human is like calling a blueprint and a concrete foundation a house.

[quote name='thrustbucket']Then, by your own definition, you yourself aren't a human life (no offense meant). What I mean by that is, I think everyone is defined by that statement. When does a multi-celled organism become a human? That's highly debatable, as we see here. But when does a human stop becoming a multi-celled organism? Imo never.

Furthermore, this discussion leads into trying to define what being human means. Which complicates it, because if being human, in this case, ends up being defined by something worth saving, I think upon observing people - the majority of people the majority of the time probably should just be called multi-celled organisms. But unfortunately, in our society, even the very worst of humans, still get to retain the title of human; thus having more protection and rights than our "multi-celled" younglings.[/quote]

Yes, a human is sophisticated multi-cellular entity. When I used the term multi-cellular entity I was talking about the simplest types of these entities.

All humans develop from simple multi-cellular entities however all simple multi-cellular entities do not develop into humans. I propose we treat all simple multi-cellular organisms with one set of rules, and humans with another.
 
[quote name='elprincipe']Not true at all. We know quite clearly when life begins. The question is, when does HUMAN life begin? Since said life definitely is human within a matter of months, why would it be a reasonable argument that the exact same life is not human a few months earlier when it is smaller? Just one of the many inconsistencies and rationalizations of those who excuse abortion.



Religion certainly defines things for many people, but not all (I am an example).

Saying humans can't think until "well after birth" is simply completely inaccurate. But as you say, you don't care anyway, so why make up an excuse? You probably feel mothers should be able to kill their children 'well after birth" because they "can't think"?



I disagree. Look at the change in opinion over the last 15 years. We have gone from a country solidly in support of legalized baby killing to one that is 50/50. I'm hopeful more progress can be made. Even if it can't, attempting to stop the slaughter of innocents is hardly pointless.[/QUOTE]

How do you know when life begins?

There's no defining "this is no longer part of the mother, this is a human being of its own" moment.

If you had an apple tree, could you define the moment you went from zero apples to one apple?

It's a gradual process, and it's gray.

I'd even consider a 9mo old fetus to be part of the mother, not its own being.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']Not comparable. Saying every single sperm must be protected because it's a potential human is a stretch. Saying that a small human with a brain, bones, organs and a heart-beat that WILL be a human like you and I in a few months must be protected is
(should be) a no-brainer.[/quote]

Well there's no guarantee it WILL be human, since somewhere up to 25% or so on average will die regardless (depending of course on the age/health of the mother, the environment, and dumb luck), but I know that's not your point.

Is it cool to kill it when it doesn't have a brain, bones, organs, and a heart beat? Or is it just the meeting of the egg and sperm or the attachment of the egg/sperm combination to the uterus that then makes it immoral (since it's from then that it has a pretty good chance of being born)? I'm asking seriously. You say that "every sperm is sacred" is a stretch, and of course I don't think that every sperm is sacred either, but any criteria you use for the beginning of the time when the blastocyst/embryo/fetus is considered human is going to be somewhat arbitrary unless you take an extreme position.

My arbitrary criteria is thus:

Firstly, I'm not vegan.

I routinely kill/participate in a system of killing forms of life that are far more aware than a clump of cells/embryo/fetus (up to a point). Unless I become vegan, I don't think I can, in good conscience, say that I'm "pro-life." So up until the fetus has some distinctive human traits (like more advanced brain function), I don't have a moral problem with ending its life. I don't think that I can justify it the other way around that is more logical/less arbitrary. Until the third trimester I think the decision should be up to doctors/mothers, and then there should be some kind of health/life regulation (which is essentially what the roe v. wade decision was). Women generally don't wait that long so I don't think it's much of a problem.

Further than that is the tried and true "it might be better off aborted" argument. It doesn't sound nice, but that's life. If a child isn't adopted pretty quickly (and it's pretty difficult for a mother to give a child up for adoption, I'd imagine), it probably won't be, and its life will more than likely suck. In that case I'd say that if a woman got pregnant and knew she didn't want to/couldn't take care of the child, then she has an important decision to make, and abortion and adoption should both be options. I know there are plenty of people who want to adopt babies, but that doesn't keep a lot of kids from ending up in foster care, so I don't think it's a legitimate reason to outlaw abortion outright. I'd rather have someone be adopted than aborted, but I don't think the state should make that decision.

Also, I think that women are much more burdened in the process than a "9 month inconvenience" so I don't think that's good reasoning either, although I also don't think there is an argument for abortion based entirely on that. Many times the same people who want to outlaw abortion are also the "small government" people (ironic, of course) who also would rather not provide the mother with any kind of state help during the pregnancy nor after it, so they're entirely dependent on the good will of others when they're not able to work. That's not an argument for abortion either, but if you were to argue that the state shouldn't allow women to get abortions, I think it's a pretty terrible idea to then also make sure that they have as few resources as possible to take care of the child the state forced them to have. Of course there would probably also be no state foster care system in that scenario, so the unadopted and unwanted child would have even lower prospects, but this is all a digression.

You probably don't agree with my reasoning, since, of course, it's arbitrary, but that's what it is. Maybe I should just make this a text document so I can just copy/paste into any future abortion threads...
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']This discussion tends to bring out the least logical in everyone. But it's stll an oldie but goodie. ;)[/quote]

No kiddin'.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']elp, you're usually a solid foundation of middle-of-the-road reason in the vs forums, even when we disagree.

To say your wording and points here are letting me down is a grievous understatement.[/QUOTE]

Er, I guess thanks and that's the way it is. I wouldn't describe my views on abortion as "middle of the road." That would be restricting abortion but keeping it legal - such as making third-trimester abortions illegal but allowing others, or at least allowing abortion in cases of rape or incest. This happens to be an issue where I believe logic dictates killing babies should be illegal in every case except when it is a case of the mother dying or the baby (in that case, only one of them can possibly make that decision).

I guess this is one issue where I'm very much on the right. On others I am very much on the left, still others dead center, what can I say. Obviously you disagree vehemently, but this is an issue I'm sure you can understand I feel strongly about.
 
[quote name='Koggit']How do you know when life begins?

There's no defining "this is no longer part of the mother, this is a human being of its own" moment.

If you had an apple tree, could you define the moment you went from zero apples to one apple?

It's a gradual process, and it's gray.

I'd even consider a 9mo old fetus to be part of the mother, not its own being.[/QUOTE]

Life begins even before an egg is fertilized. Sperm are alive as well. Are they separate from the mother/father? Obviously not, until the egg is fertilized. Even then, all we have are the two building blocks of human life put together. It's not until a few days later when this concoction is implanted and growing on his/her own that we have a unique human being.

Saying a 9-month-old in the womb is not a human is crazy. Any healthy 9-month-old fetus can survive outside the womb. Why is a thin layer of tissue between the child and the outside world keeping the child from being human? That makes no sense whatsoever. What makes a child inside the womb one minute magically transform into a human being the next minute, when it is delivered?
 
[quote name='camoor']An embryo does not have a working brain, bones, organs and a heart-beat. So again it comes down to whether you believe a "miracle" happens the instant the sperm joins with the egg. Calling an embryo a human is like calling a blueprint and a concrete foundation a house.
[/QUOTE]
Well, everything you are saying is sort of assuming the majority of abortions occur in the state of just being a few cells, which I don't think is the case. Crushing brain and bones and sucking it out is what I'm talking about.

Higher brain functions? Hmmm. I can think of several political leaders, and even co-workers, that I wouldn't put in that category, that's actually an appealing slippery slope now that I think about it....

[quote name='Koggit']

I'd even consider a 9mo old fetus to be part of the mother, not its own being.[/QUOTE]

Wow. Well, why stop there? Why not allow killing it the day it's born if it turns out to be ugly? You could also make a pretty good case for a mothers right to kill it at any point in it's first few months/years of life by saying the little organism is still completely dependent on it's mother.... So why not still make it a womans right to kill it if she decides the choice to keep it ends up too much a pain in the ass?

In fact, if this debate is really about womens rights, I'm all for just allowing a mother to legally kill her child at any stage in life as her moral and social responsibility. Hell, why not? Gotta trust mothers intuition, right?

[quote name='SpazX']
Is it cool to kill it when it doesn't have a brain, bones, organs, and a heart beat? Or is it just the meeting of the egg and sperm or the attachment of the egg/sperm combination to the uterus that then makes it immoral (since it's from then that it has a pretty good chance of being born)? I'm asking seriously. You say that "every sperm is sacred" is a stretch, and of course I don't think that every sperm is sacred either, but any criteria you use for the beginning of the time when the blastocyst/embryo/fetus is considered human is going to be somewhat arbitrary unless you take an extreme position.[/quote]

Well you just outlined the real crux of the whole abortion debate. At some point, that "thing" is as human as you and me. So where do you slide the ruler to say the "thing" has any rights? And furthermore, who can dictate such? Just thinking outloud.... I don't have all the answers.

My arbitrary criteria is thus:

Firstly, I'm not vegan.

I routinely kill/participate in a system of killing forms of life that are far more aware than a clump of cells/embryo/fetus (up to a point). Unless I become vegan, I don't think I can, in good conscience, say that I'm "pro-life." So up until the fetus has some distinctive human traits (like more advanced brain function), I don't have a moral problem with ending its life. I don't think that I can justify it the other way around that is more logical/less arbitrary. Until the third trimester I think the decision should be up to doctors/mothers, and then there should be some kind of health/life regulation (which is essentially what the roe v. wade decision was). Women generally don't wait that long so I don't think it's much of a problem.

I'm more or less ok with this. But why is the third trimester an issue if the other two aren't? The whole problem with this debate is it's amorphous scientific bump in a rug of explanations.

Further than that is the tried and true "it might be better off aborted" argument. It doesn't sound nice, but that's life. If a child isn't adopted pretty quickly (and it's pretty difficult for a mother to give a child up for adoption, I'd imagine), it probably won't be, and its life will more than likely suck. In that case I'd say that if a woman got pregnant and knew she didn't want to/couldn't take care of the child, then she has an important decision to make, and abortion and adoption should both be options. I know there are plenty of people who want to adopt babies, but that doesn't keep a lot of kids from ending up in foster care, so I don't think it's a legitimate reason to outlaw abortion outright. I'd rather have someone be adopted than aborted, but I don't think the state should make that decision.

You can use the same logic to say that someone, or society itself, is better off with the death of multiple undesirable people. The question is: should we?

You are essentially arguing that the state shouldn't protect people's lives if they are undesirable enough by those responsible for them. If that's the road we want to go down, then we are just a hair away from legalizing holocaust.

I'm pretty sure if you conducted a survey of kids that had grown up in even the worst foster care scenarios, and asked them if they'd have preferred death, I doubt you'd even get one "yes". I think it's a universal truth that most people, no matter how bad it gets, still like being alive. And those that don't, usually take care of the problem on their own.

But the day we allow the state to have a formula for figuring out if a child's prospects at life are "Good Enough" to allow it to live, we have really lost the right to call ourselves civilized beings.

Also, I think that women are much more burdened in the process than a "9 month inconvenience" so I don't think that's good reasoning either, although I also don't think there is an argument for abortion based entirely on that. Many times the same people who want to outlaw abortion are also the "small government" people (ironic, of course) who also would rather not provide the mother with any kind of state help during the pregnancy nor after it, so they're entirely dependent on the good will of others when they're not able to work.

I'm really not sure who you are talking about, and I totally disagree. I think nearly everyone that is staunch anti-abortion would be happy to have the state take over the financial care of that child, even in the womb, if there were legislation that made that the option instead of abortion. The child would then become a ward of the state in the womb, if the mother signed said rights over during gestation.

That's not an argument for abortion either, but if you were to argue that the state shouldn't allow women to get abortions, I think it's a pretty terrible idea to then also make sure that they have as few resources as possible to take care of the child the state forced them to have. Of course there would probably also be no state foster care system in that scenario, so the unadopted and unwanted child would have even lower prospects, but this is all a digression.
Like I said, I would be perfectly happy with the state taking over the financial burden, even in the womb, if the mother decides she doesn't want it. In fact, that's probably the most clear cut case of justifiable welfare I can think of. And I don't think you'd get much of an argument out of the pro-life lobby.

You probably don't agree with my reasoning, since, of course, it's arbitrary, but that's what it is. Maybe I should just make this a text document so I can just copy/paste into any future abortion threads...

I enjoyed reading your reasoning. I agree with some of it. But I think you are making extreme assumptions about the people that are "small government" and also anti-abortion.

I do not think abortion should be totally illegal. But I think it should be difficult to obtain, and nearly impossible to be used as simple birth control.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']I'm more or less ok with this. But why is the third trimester an issue if the other two aren't? The whole problem with this debate is it's amorphous scientific bump in a rug of explanations.[/quote]

Well yeah, that's just my criteria. The "third trimester" thing is just a convenient timeframe, but what I'm saying is when the fetus has distinctively human traits - and especially when it's possible it could live outside of the mother - then that's when I consider it human and so it shouldn't be aborted unless it's necessary.


[quote name='thrustbucket']You can use the same logic to say that someone, or society itself, is better off with the death of multiple undesirable people. The question is: should we?

You are essentially arguing that the state shouldn't protect people's lives if they are undesirable enough by those responsible for them. If that's the road we want to go down, then we are just a hair away from legalizing holocaust.

I'm pretty sure if you conducted a survey of kids that had grown up in even the worst foster care scenarios, and asked them if they'd have preferred death, I doubt you'd even get one "yes". I think it's a universal truth that most people, no matter how bad it gets, still like being alive. And those that don't, usually take care of the problem on their own.

But the day we allow the state to have a formula for figuring out if a child's prospects at life are "Good Enough" to allow it to live, we have really lost the right to call ourselves civilized beings.[/quote]

Well I agree, you can't take someone's life unless it's in defense and absolutely necessary. I just don't apply that to a fetus, which changes things. If you have a dog and it has been abused or it will never have a home, it's put down. And similar to what I was saying, dogs are far more aware than a fetus. It's not preferable to me, I'd rather have a child be born and adopted by someone who wants it and will love it and take care of it, but I think that's a decision that should be left up to the mother. It's kind of a one shot thing - this is your one shot to end it before it begins, if you don't do it then the child will be born and what happens happens.

I'm sure you'd find some people who would rather be dead, there are many who kill themselves every day - but I know that they would be few. I don't think that the state or anybody else should be able to decide if someone's life is good enough, but it's still something to think about when a woman is considering the prospects of a child they clearly don't want.


[quote name='thrustbucket']I'm really not sure who you are talking about, and I totally disagree. I think nearly everyone that is staunch anti-abortion would be happy to have the state take over the financial care of that child, even in the womb, if there were legislation that made that the option instead of abortion. The child would then become a ward of the state in the womb, if the mother signed said rights over during gestation.

Like I said, I would be perfectly happy with the state taking over the financial burden, even in the womb, if the mother decides she doesn't want it. In fact, that's probably the most clear cut case of justifiable welfare I can think of. And I don't think you'd get much of an argument out of the pro-life lobby.[/quote]

The anti-abortion crowd is largely a conservative crowd. I'm not saying that the two ideas go together, I'm saying that there is overlap and also, practically, if abortion were outlawed, it would be done by a Republican administration, which would also be staunchly against welfare, as they've always been. In that case you'd have to have a Republican administration willing to both outlaw abortion and expand welfare. I don't see those going together. You may find it justifiable, but I don't think it's an idea that would sell well to the conservative crowd.

It's somewhat similar to the idea that both birth control and abortion should be outlawed - a horrible idea, but some people still have it (though fewer than the number of people who are both anti-welfare and anti-abortion, I'm sure). Then there is a large number of people who are opposed to teaching kids about birth control and also opposed to abortion, which is also a horrible idea.

Anyway, I think you underestimate the number of people opposed to both abortion rights and welfare (in any case).


[quote name='thrustbucket']I enjoyed reading your reasoning. I agree with some of it. But I think you are making extreme assumptions about the people that are "small government" and also anti-abortion.

I do not think abortion should be totally illegal. But I think it should be difficult to obtain, and nearly impossible to be used as simple birth control.[/quote]

I don't think that abortion is regularly used or easily obtained as a simple birth control. I mean there's nothing legally stopping a woman from using it as a simple birth control, but I don't think most women would be willing to do that (emotionally) and would have easy access to other birth control methods anyway, which are much cheaper and easier to use.

The number of abortions has been dropping pretty steadily for years and from the CDC report in 2003 there were a little under 850,000 legal abortions. About how many times did women have sex in that year without wanting a child? I think if women were regularly using abortion as birth control that number would be huge - in the tens of millions, at least. Condom sales are in the hundreds of millions per year, not to mention birth control pills and other less popular devices.
 
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[quote name='elprincipe']Er, I guess thanks and that's the way it is. I wouldn't describe my views on abortion as "middle of the road." That would be restricting abortion but keeping it legal - such as making third-trimester abortions illegal but allowing others, or at least allowing abortion in cases of rape or incest. This happens to be an issue where I believe logic dictates killing babies should be illegal in every case except when it is a case of the mother dying or the baby (in that case, only one of them can possibly make that decision).

I guess this is one issue where I'm very much on the right. On others I am very much on the left, still others dead center, what can I say. Obviously you disagree vehemently, but this is an issue I'm sure you can understand I feel strongly about.[/QUOTE]

I can respect that. Obviously, indeed, we disagree on where we stand.

That said, I wish we could focus on ways to reduce unwanted pregnancies in order to reduce the need for abortions.

A day without abortions is a joyous one, undoubtedly, for anyone involved. But that day will come not when abortion is outlawed (then only outlaws will have abortion ;)) - but the day when unwanted pregnancies are reduced to statistical insignificance.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I can respect that. Obviously, indeed, we disagree on where we stand.

That said, I wish we could focus on ways to reduce unwanted pregnancies in order to reduce the need for abortions.

A day without abortions is a joyous one, undoubtedly, for anyone involved. But that day will come not when abortion is outlawed (then only outlaws will have abortion ;)) - but the day when unwanted pregnancies are reduced to statistical insignificance.[/QUOTE]

That day likely won't come through billions spent in handing condoms out and putting condoms on cucumbers in elementary school.

That day will likely not come until there is a way to cheaply and safely medically "turn off" reproductive abilities in male or females, with a way to safely and cheaply turn it on again - and have it almost required to do so. I think it will happen in our lifetime.
 
[quote name='mykevermin'] But that day will come not when abortion is outlawed (then only outlaws will have abortion ;)) .[/QUOTE]


nice.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']That day likely won't come through billions spent in handing condoms out and putting condoms on cucumbers in elementary school.[/quote]

I agree. Good thing we don't do that, y'know?

Good thing we don't teach them abstinence onl...oh. Yeah. That's right.

That day will likely not come until there is a way to cheaply and safely medically "turn off" reproductive abilities in male or females, with a way to safely and cheaply turn it on again - and have it almost required to do so. I think it will happen in our lifetime.

Which kinda contradicts the whole "we spend ka-jillions teaching sex ed to students!" disdain in the first part of your post.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']

Which kinda contradicts the whole "we spend ka-jillions teaching sex ed to students!" disdain in the first part of your post.[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure why. Human behavior is incredibly hard to change, especially on a grand scale. But people love quick fixes, and just like magic weight loss pills (that still don't exist), if there was a surgical procedure or implant that was 100% effective with no side effects, I don't know who would be against mass installation.

I'm usually a small gov guy, as you know. But I would not be adverse to discussing ways to install mandatory reversible birth control in everyone, maybe even at birth. The downside to that would then be the temptation to take it a step further and require "proof" you can support a kid to the state before it's reversed. And on the surface I don't care for that either. But I'd prefer exploring such things over rampant abortion.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']Wow. Well, why stop there? Why not allow killing it the day it's born if it turns out to be ugly? You could also make a pretty good case for a mothers right to kill it at any point in it's first few months/years of life by saying the little organism is still completely dependent on it's mother.... So why not still make it a womans right to kill it if she decides the choice to keep it ends up too much a pain in the ass?

In fact, if this debate is really about womens rights, I'm all for just allowing a mother to legally kill her child at any stage in life as her moral and social responsibility. Hell, why not? Gotta trust mothers intuition, right?[/QUOTE]

I think adding "biologically" in front of "dependent" changes much of the meaning. And saying it's about "women's rights" kind of makes it sound like "equal wages" and "voting." It's also about the government telling you what you can and cannot do with your body. The fact that at some point, your body *contains* another living thing is what makes it a complicated issue. But I'd think a small gov guy like yourself might understand it better by thinking about what your reaction would be if the government told you there were certain things that you were flat out prohibited from doing with your own body. Should it be illegal for pregnant women to smoke, too? What about smoking in general, then? And so on and so forth.

[quote name='thrustbucket']You can use the same logic to say that someone, or society itself, is better off with the death of multiple undesirable people. The question is: should we?[/QUOTE]

We do it all the time, at least in states where we still have the death penalty.

[quote name='thrustbucket']But I think it should be difficult to obtain, and nearly impossible to be used as simple birth control.[/QUOTE]

Well, I've yet to meet the woman who prefers getting her reproductive organs scraped and vacuumed with surgical instruments to having her man put on a condom, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Of course, making it difficult to obtain only increases the probability that the abortions that do happen will be late-term. So which is preferable?

[quote name='thrustbucket']That day likely won't come through billions spent in handing condoms out and putting condoms on cucumbers in elementary school.[/QUOTE]

But since there ain't any better ways at the moment . . .

Anyway (and this is no longer directed toward thrust) , what I find especially troubling is "the regulation ... explicitly allows workers to withhold information about such services and refuse to refer patients elsewhere." In fact, the whole point of this regulation is because "two professional organizations for obstetricians and gynecologists [that he said] might require doctors who object to abortions to refer patients to other physicians who would provide them." Notably, it also covers all medical professionals and pharmacists.

Quotes from: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/08/21/ST2008082103218.html

So no, it ain't just about "I get to pass on performing abortions" -- it very literally and intentionally allows these people to impose their morals on you -- to say that because THEY are opposed to birth control, YOU don't get to have it.

I mean, let me make this clear: if you are a woman who goes to pick up your birth control prescription and your pharmacist doesn't like that, he can pull the prescription and not give it back to you, like this douche-nozzle: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040607-644153,00.html, or this one: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/23/eveningnews/main657435.shtml, or this one: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0405-23.htm. And in the case of a woman who needs to grab some morning after pills, the need is quite urgent, and *cannot* be delayed ... else you're looking at a woman who needs one of those abortions they also oppose.

Further, the proposed rule isn't limited to abortion. That's one given example. But there's nothing that says abortions are the only procedures that can be refused.

"The fourth conscience provision, 42 U.S.C. § 300a-7(d), provides that “[n]o individual
shall be required to perform or assist in the performance of any part of a health service program
or research activity funded in whole or in part under a program administered by [the Department] if his performance or assistance in the performance of such part of such program or activity would be contrary to his religious beliefs or moral convictions."

Think about that. All those "crazy" hypotheticals that people have been listing about not treating gays or blacks? Yeah, that shit's protected. And the nutjobs are completely aware of what they can get away with now (from WaPo again):

"Both supporters and critics said the language remains broad enough to apply to contraceptives, as well as many other areas in medicine.

'I think this provides broad application not just to abortion and sterilization but any other type of morally objectionable procedure and research activity,' said David Stevens of the Christian Medical and Dental Association. 'We think it's badly needed. Our members are facing discrimination every day, and as we get into human cloning and all sorts of possibilities, it's going to become even more important.'"

Not gonna be forced into the cloning either, huh?

Even if they're anti-abortion, how the fuck can anyone come out and defend this utter bullshit with a fucking clean conscience or a straight face? Because this -- THIS RIGHT fuckING HERE -- is the shit that needs to be fought, tooth and nail, if you have even the *slightest* idea of American ideals or human rights. So really. Who just read all that and said, "No, no, I'm all for that" -- because I want a direct, personal, fucking rebuttal from anyone who's posting in this thread supporting this bullshit so far. Let's go.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']Well, everything you are saying is sort of assuming the majority of abortions occur in the state of just being a few cells, which I don't think is the case. Crushing brain and bones and sucking it out is what I'm talking about.[/quote]

I think a discussion along these lines would be very interesting and productive.

Unfortunately I think that it's pointless when the vast majority of anti-abortion activists are like the elp (IE they get so such a self-righteous God warrior rush in calling others "baby killers" that actually debating the issue like a rational adult would be a real drag)

We're in this crazy polarized black-and-white world, and all I see are shades of gray. :oldman:
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I can respect that. Obviously, indeed, we disagree on where we stand.

That said, I wish we could focus on ways to reduce unwanted pregnancies in order to reduce the need for abortions.

A day without abortions is a joyous one, undoubtedly, for anyone involved. But that day will come not when abortion is outlawed (then only outlaws will have abortion ;)) - but the day when unwanted pregnancies are reduced to statistical insignificance.[/QUOTE]

Haha, nice one with the outlaws bit.

Anyway, I too wish that there could be room for progress on the sidelines of the broader abortion battle. As you hint, believe it or not, there should be some areas of agreement that can vastly improve the situation.

I am in total support of the availability of birth control. I am in support of education (if OK with parents). I am in support of the morning-after pill, which prevents fertilized eggs from being implanted (thus they die as many other fertilized eggs do naturally without growing into a human being). Basically I'm in support of anything reasonable that can reduce unwanted pregnancies. Less abortions not only mean less children killed, but better physical and mental health for the women who would have gone through them.

I think pro-life politicians should, while still working for the goal of making abortion illegal, work with those who want to keep it legal who are interested in policies intended to reduce unwanted pregnancies. Surely it is in the interest of the country to do this. It would be a happy day indeed if no women were desperate enough to seek an abortion.
 
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