At the risk of distracting this from a potential lasagna thread:
Omegavegeta wrote:
The choice isn't, shouldn't be, & hopefully will never be yours to make, dick. I thought you were for small government? Why the hell should the government tell a woman she CAN'T get an abortion?
Um... For the same reason why the government can tell anyone that they can't steal my car? Unless you take the absolute position that a fetus has zero rights
at all until the moment of birth, then the issue of competing rights comes into play. And, as I have explained numerous times, the government can (and must) intervene to decide how those competing rights cases should be resolved. In the same way that a thief's right to be unhindered in his acquisition of property is countered by my right not to have my property taken from me, a womans right to control her body can be countered by a fetus's right to live.
Unless, of course, you believe that a fetus has zero right to live at any point during a pregnancy. Which, while a valid position, is an incredibly unpopular one, especially in the US. Hell, Roe v. Wade doesn't go that far. No federal level politician that I can think of would *ever* argue for elective abortion to the moment of birth (and if he did, he could kiss his career good bye). What I'm saying isn't radical, it's mainstream. It just seems like some people are so caught up with "picking a side" that they don't see that the realistic answers to this issue lie in the middle.
Edited, Nov 4th 2011 3:59pm by gbaji