Abortion

@Red the Bear I respect that you're having multiple discussions at once and it's probably getting overwhelming, but I do have one hypothetical that I'd like to ask. Let's say I need a kidney, or a bone marrow transplant, and you're the one person on Earth who I match with. Do you think the government should have the power to force you against your will to undergo those procedures for the sake of my life?
Short answer, obviously not.

I understand what you're getting at but one way to spin it around is like this, in the scenario you proposed I have no control over it in the sense that your condition is not due to my actions rather without my consent and knowledge , but in the case of an abortion the woman took a choice with her consent to commit to the act of intercourse, if your mentally sound and have consented to the act I don't think you could simply escape from the responsibility, you had a direct hand in it.(thats why I think rape is such a hideous crime)

Also here's another way to spin the scenario you proposed, suppose i wake from sleep and see you unconscious with your hand attached to me due to cuffs and my blood connected to you through a tube, I could make a call and wait for help to arrive or could just cut you off and let you die. The circumstances are similar (a bit different but you get my point) but one is much more for lack of a better word vicious and direct so I'll assume people would answer much differently due to that alone.
Abortion especially the later it gets is a very crude and inhumane procedure, you could look it up if you want to .
 
That is utter nonsense. If my grandma had balls she would be my grandpa. But that is of course impossible.

Whatever mental gymnastics you try to do to justify such an opinion any such restriction is restricting what only women can do with their bodies, usually based on religious belief. This is (or should be) anathema in a fair, equitable and secular society. In fact women are quite happy (or at least prepared to accept) having their bodies regulated in late pregnancy, but fanatics aren't even happy with this.
Men and women are responsible for conception, but only women are responsible for giving birth; it is restricted to women because that is what it is. Justifying this supposed restriction of rights we could allow abortion up to 35 weeks.
This would hold water if the same people in this country who are the most radical in terms of banning abortion are also fervently against things like free pre-natal care, free meals for children, and universal healthcare. This is not about protecting and defending life, if it was then red states would have the lowest maternal death rates instead of the highest, they would have the best access to healthcare instead of the poorest. This has never, politically, been about life, it has always been about control and votes.
It is a pity and you are absolutely right. You cannot impose a measure and then leave women in serious difficulties, or have juvenile facilities in a deplorable state (if that is the case in America).
 
I blame the ancients personally: https://muvs.org/en/topics/termination-of-pregnancy/abortion-in-antiquity-en/

Too many lax moral attitudes.
I get what your getting at here but it's not exactly the slam dunk you think it is.
First of the reasons cited in that article is not very attractive now is it population control? (Its the opposite off the argument that the government shouldn't intervene as basically the government would be forcing abortion on the poor as controlling measures, rooted in eugenics and not very moral if you asked me)
Not to mention their lack of medical understanding, we now know a fetus is a different entity than the hose obviously dependent on it for its existence but nonetheless separated .

Another thing is Roman's presumably had a lot of the same discussions that we have today , to my knowledge early in the empire the emperors used to extoll traditional values as a form of objections to the late republic decadence and simply in more expedient ways to curb the population decline (which had some success i think ).

And lastly not very sound to base our morals and ethics on what the ancients did , after all they practiced widespread slavery and other such acts .
 

Cheers for that, I'd heard the argument in various places but never knew from where it had been originally sourced. Interesting read.

Short answer, obviously not.

I understand what you're getting at but one way to spin it around is like this, in the scenario you proposed I have no control over it in the sense that your condition is not due to my actions rather without my consent and knowledge , but in the case of an abortion the woman took a choice with her consent to commit to the act of intercourse, if your mentally sound and have consented to the act I don't think you could simply escape from the responsibility, you had a direct hand in it.(thats why I think rape is such a hideous crime)

Also here's another way to spin the scenario you proposed, suppose i wake from sleep and see you unconscious with your hand attached to me due to cuffs and my blood connected to you through a tube, I could make a call and wait for help to arrive or could just cut you off and let you die. The circumstances are similar (a bit different but you get my point) but one is much more for lack of a better word vicious and direct so I'll assume people would answer much differently due to that alone.
Abortion especially the later it gets is a very crude and inhumane procedure, you could look it up if you want to .

Thanks for the answer.
 
"white woman who simply got pregnant due to being careless and her decadent life style and looking at abortion to escape responsibility, "

"having sex is a choice its neither a right or an entitlement, in fact sex by the most basic facts of nature was intended to be for procreation , the whole change of attitude towards it is due to the sex revolution"

As I wrote before.

The majority that want to ban abortion want to do so because women should be punished for being sexually active without wanting a pregnancy, I am convinced of this. I am 100% certain that if men were the ones being forced to carry a pregnancy a ban on abortion wouldn't even be discussed.
 
I get what your getting at here but it's not exactly the slam dunk you think it is.
First of the reasons cited in that article is not very attractive now is it population control? (Its the opposite off the argument that the government shouldn't intervene as basically the government would be forcing abortion on the poor as controlling measures, rooted in eugenics and not very moral if you asked me)
Not to mention their lack of medical understanding, we now know a fetus is a different entity than the hose obviously dependent on it for its existence but nonetheless separated .

Another thing is Roman's presumably had a lot of the same discussions that we have today , to my knowledge early in the empire the emperors used to extoll traditional values as a form of objections to the late republic decadence and simply in more expedient ways to curb the population decline (which had some success i think ).

And lastly not very sound to base our morals and ethics on what the ancients did , after all they practiced widespread slavery and other such acts .

Not meant as a slam dunk, especially as we have few if any female voices from the ancient world giving their viewpoints. The thoughts on abortion have been mediated through men.

What it does show is that we have at least 3,500 years of recorded evidence of women (generally the better off) procuring abortions to gain control over their bodies, even in the face of legal prohibitions on abortion, and even in the face of the risks to life that many of these methods posed.

Abortion bans have never worked.
 
Truth. Anyone supporting this abortion rule is a lunatic. A truly crazed individual.

If this actually get passed USA is even more fecked up than I thought
In contrast:

MPs vote to continue abortion ‘pills by post’ scheme in England

Government will be forced to abandon its plan to end a two-year trial of the scheme in August

MPs took advantage of a free vote in the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon to vote by 215 to 188 to force the government to abandon its plan to end the two-year trial of the scheme, which was brought in temporarily when Covid struck in spring 2020, on 29 August.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...inue-abortion-pills-by-post-scheme-in-england

I find it so bizarre how the UK and US right-wing parties are so far apart on this issue. Not that I am complaining much about the UK's position.
 
You make a good point but here's how I see it , every human has the right to life a mother choosing to take an abortion is infringing on her baby's life.

We already know without a pre-frontal cortex no human thought is possible. Therefore, it makes zero sense to call any stage of development before a prefrontal cortex "a human." Around 17 to 25 weeks is when that happens. So 16 weeks and before, there is supporting evidence from science to call a collection of cells a "human."

The problem with banning abortion is two-fold. First, it relies on completely subjective or religious belie being imposed by others. You might believe that "life" equals "human" or that potential life equals human life but many do not and there is really no science or logic that supports that automatic equivocation. Just because hardcore religious people believe the moment of conception equals "human baby" doesn't give you the right to force that believe on others. You don't like abortion, then don't get one. You shouldn't have the right to force that belief on others.

Second, from a pragmatic point of view legalized abortion is simply better for society.
Legalized abortion is estimated to have reduced violent crime by 47% and property crime by 33% over this period, and thus can explain most of the observed crime decline.
https://law.stanford.edu/publicatio...-abortion-on-crime-over-the-last-two-decades/

The real problem is many articles were written around 2008 that Democrats should use their supermajority and Obama as Pres to pass a law in Congress legalizing abortion at the federal law. Legal sholars said Roe v Wade was always too flimsy a ruling to continue to base pro-choice rights on and those rights could and should have been enshrined 14 years ago when the Democrats had the chance. This highlights another failure in the Dems actually getting stuff done.

If she thinks the Republican Party is a bunch of fascists then....well I might get banned for giving her some recommendations. You can’t out vote fascism, you have to repress it by force.

The American state was never intended to be a mass democracy, the answer to keeping abortion for good is to get rid of the Supreme Court. But that would undermine such a pillar of the American state and have such repercussions that no one political party or upper class parts of America society would ever support it.

That is not even close to a viable policy or strategy recommendation. It would make no sense to waste any time pursuing such an extreme goal.
 
It’s not a ‘baby,’ in the overwhelming number of cases it’s a non viable mass of cells.

You think that a non viable mass of cells has more rights than the female carrying it?
President Joe disagrees




:lol:
 
I wonder what it'll take for the American citizens to finally break. Something seriously rotten at the core of the country. Maybe they should have privatised and monetised abortion. The 'morals' of politicians usually don't extend further than their wallets.
 
Short answer, obviously not.

I understand what you're getting at but one way to spin it around is like this, in the scenario you proposed I have no control over it in the sense that your condition is not due to my actions rather without my consent and knowledge , but in the case of an abortion the woman took a choice with her consent to commit to the act of intercourse, if your mentally sound and have consented to the act I don't think you could simply escape from the responsibility, you had a direct hand in it.(thats why I think rape is such a hideous crime)

Also here's another way to spin the scenario you proposed, suppose i wake from sleep and see you unconscious with your hand attached to me due to cuffs and my blood connected to you through a tube, I could make a call and wait for help to arrive or could just cut you off and let you die. The circumstances are similar (a bit different but you get my point) but one is much more for lack of a better word vicious and direct so I'll assume people would answer much differently due to that alone.
Abortion especially the later it gets is a very crude and inhumane procedure, you could look it up if you want to .
On the first piece:

The thing is, at a fundamental level I disagree with abortion and I know plenty of people who do - all left wing voters. What’s made this issue problematic, is that it actually, this really isn’t about abortion, but it’s about choice.

I’m with you, for example, that a woman who goes around sleeping with men, unprotected, happy knowing that if she gets pregnant she can get an abortion, isn’t something I would personally agree with.

HOWEVER, convince me that we should restrict the right for a woman to make that choice, rather than not restrict it and let them make that choice? Tell me other important rules in place focussed on restricting choice, rather than restricting something for the general safety of others? And it’s not the same as murder before you go there (see below).

On the second point, this really is a silly example (sorry but being candid). As someone who has family who works in IVF, your premise is that at all stages of pregnancy the unborn child is equivalent to a human being. Which is factually untrue. Which is why there is sympathy from many people on restrictions on abortion beyond a certain term within pregnancy.
 
Better chance of working than wasting time trying to eliminate the Supreme Court.

Good on that, "bro"
joebidenicecream-joe.gif
 
In contrast:

MPs vote to continue abortion ‘pills by post’ scheme in England

Government will be forced to abandon its plan to end a two-year trial of the scheme in August

MPs took advantage of a free vote in the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon to vote by 215 to 188 to force the government to abandon its plan to end the two-year trial of the scheme, which was brought in temporarily when Covid struck in spring 2020, on 29 August.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...inue-abortion-pills-by-post-scheme-in-england

I find it so bizarre how the UK and US right-wing parties are so far apart on this issue. Not that I am complaining much about the UK's position.

We're just generally more secular here though, we've had a long time to shake off all the nonsense committed in the name of religion. It took us long enough to push it out of our institutions.

Given the US essentially started from scratch they took a few steps back towards monetisation and political control of/via religion. At some point they'll catch up to the civilised world.
 
We would have to be in full Handsmaid Tale /Civil War 2 territory for any of this 'abolish the Supreme Court' to be anything other than extreme hyperbole. It is just a ridiculous assertion right now.
 
Abolitionism has been part of American politics since forever.

Why don't you or @Sweet Square post what you believe is a viable strategy for abolishing the Supreme Court instead of making pointless snarky comments or, even worse, pointless meme lord images?

I'm very curious how you truly believe this might work out considering you don't believe enough people care to vote to make a difference, the Democrats couldn't enshrine abortion rights when they had a supermajority but you think its viable strategy for them to call a constitutional convention to abolish the Supreme Court? Sounds like a complete unviable pipe dream, but please, lay out how you think that's a realistic suggestion.

What percentage of people do you believe will take action to try to abolish the Supreme Court? If you actually think that is somehow viable, please outline how you believe that will work in reality. You think over 150 million people in the US are ready to go to war (metaphorically or literally) to abolish the Supreme Court? What's the actual plan of action to abolish the Supreme Court?

We would have to be in full Handsmaid Tale /Civil War 2 territory for any of this 'abolish the Supreme Court' to be anything other than extreme hyperbole. It is just a ridiculous assertion right now.

Yeah, it's a pretty bonkers view to suggest as a viable response.
 
We already know without a pre-frontal cortex no human thought is possible. Therefore, it makes zero sense to call any stage of development before a prefrontal cortex "a human." Around 17 to 25 weeks is when that happens. So 16 weeks and before, there is supporting evidence from science to call a collection of cells a "human."

The problem with banning abortion is two-fold. First, it relies on completely subjective or religious belie being imposed by others. You might believe that "life" equals "human" or that potential life equals human life but many do not and there is really no science or logic that supports that automatic equivocation. Just because hardcore religious people believe the moment of conception equals "human baby" doesn't give you the right to force that believe on others. You don't like abortion, then don't get one. You shouldn't have the right to force that belief on others.

Second, from a pragmatic point of view legalized abortion is simply better for society.

https://law.stanford.edu/publicatio...-abortion-on-crime-over-the-last-two-decades/

The real problem is many articles were written around 2008 that Democrats should use their supermajority and Obama as Pres to pass a law in Congress legalizing abortion at the federal law. Legal sholars said Roe v Wade was always too flimsy a ruling to continue to base pro-choice rights on and those rights could and should have been enshrined 14 years ago when the Democrats had the chance. This highlights another failure in the Dems actually getting stuff done.



That is not even close to a viable policy or strategy recommendation. It would make no sense to waste any time pursuing such an extreme goal.
However, a mass of cells does not have a heart or form a brain from the first weeks.
17 to 24 weeks is a very high range. From week 13 or 14 they can hear their own heart.
Can a doctor ensure that the fetus has not heard or has no thoughts at an exact week of pregnancy? You mark a border in the thoughts, but why not at the moment of the first heartbeat. Another will tell you that when they listen their own heart, another when they react to sounds from outside and the most radical ones that until the moment they feel pain or have developed the lungs. I think I've heard them all.

And does it not clash with the woman's right to continue to decide, being strict up to the moment the umbilical cord is broken?

The religion part is quite misleading. It would be to assume that all voters are pro-life or all democratic voters are pro-choice, or that there are no non-religious people against abortion.
 
@oneniltothearsenal I have posted multiple articles that argue for getting rid of the supreme court. Maybe give it a read before labeling it a pipedream or asking us why/how to go about it.

Feel free to link them right here along with your own personal analysis of how you think that's actually a viable plan. You and Sweet Square made the assertion, back it up (I'm not digging through your profile to find something you might have posted months ago).

But really, I'd love to hear your personal strategy for what constitutes a viable course of action to eliminate the supreme court since you don't think it's a pipe dream but a realistic strategy.
 
However, a mass of cells does not have a heart or form a brain from the first weeks.
17 to 24 weeks is a very high range. From week 13 or 14 they can hear their own heart.
Can a doctor ensure that the fetus has not heard or has no thoughts at an exact week of pregnancy? You mark a border in the thoughts, but why not at the moment of the first heartbeat. Another will tell you that when they listen their own heart, another when they react to sounds from outside and the most radical ones that until the moment they feel pain or have developed the lungs. I think I've heard them all.

The religion part is quite misleading. It would be to assume that all voters are pro-life or all democratic voters are pro-choice, or that there are no non-religious people against abortion.

A heart doesn't allow human thoughts, a pre-frontal cortex does. Science tells us that a clump of cells in the first trimester is simply not capable of human thought, thus it's not human life. And 17 weeks is the extremely low end of the range for pre-frontal cortex development. And while I am sure some non-religious people are anti-choice, they are an extremely low percentage as all the vocal anti-choice people and politicians are also very vocally hardcore Christians. But if you have a study that shows most or even many anti-choice people are not religious please link it.
 
Feel free to link them right here along with your own personal analysis of how you think that's actually a viable plan. You and Sweet Square made the assertion, back it up (I'm not digging through your profile to find something you might have posted months ago).

But really, I'd love to hear your personal strategy for what constitutes a viable course of action to eliminate the supreme court since you don't think it's a pipe dream but a realistic strategy.

I posted it on here just today. You've been on the caf long enough, It shouldn't be hard to find. Here are a few more

https://www.annenbergpublicpolicyce...onsider-abolishing-or-limiting-supreme-court/

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-case-for-ending-the-supreme-court-as-we-know-it

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/us/politics/supreme-court-commission.html

https://fivethirtyeight.com/feature...americans-think-about-abortion-or-gun-rights/

https://www.vox.com/2018/10/12/17950896/supreme-court-amy-coney-barrett-mark-tushnet
 
Why don't you or @Sweet Square post what you believe is a viable strategy for abolishing the Supreme Court instead of making pointless snarky comments or, even worse, pointless meme lord images?

I'm very curious how you truly believe this might work out considering you don't believe enough people care to vote to make a difference, the Democrats couldn't enshrine abortion rights when they had a supermajority but you think its viable strategy for them to call a constitutional convention to abolish the Supreme Court? Sounds like a complete unviable pipe dream, but please, lay out how you think that's a realistic suggestion.

What percentage of people do you believe will take action to try to abolish the Supreme Court? If you actually think that is somehow viable, please outline how you believe that will work in reality. You think over 150 million people in the US are ready to go to war (metaphorically or literally) to abolish the Supreme Court? What's the actual plan of action to abolish the Supreme Court?
Honestly just enjoy your day out voting. Put a nice shirt, get a haircut a few hours before, make a voting playlist and rage post the day after it doesn't work. Really live the moment. Tbh @entropy is a far nicer person than me and I know these conversations are a waste of time. Although I did enjoy finding that Biden meme, so not all was lost.
 
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I wonder what it'll take for the American citizens to finally break. Something seriously rotten at the core of the country. Maybe they should have privatised and monetised abortion. The 'morals' of politicians usually don't extend further than their wallets.
They've monetised childbirth, so there's that.
 

I don't see any viable plans of action for abolishing the Supreme Court.

The NYTimes is behind a paywall but the subheader mentions Biden is not even willing to try to pack the court (so curious where the will is to fight the far tougher battle to abolish it entirely). The 538 is just commenting on public opinion of a highly conservative Supreme Court, no plan of action And Annenberg is just a poll that says 1/3 of people survey might believe it's better to get rid of it altogether if the conservative majority keeps making extreme rulings. And that's only 1/3 think it might be better not 1/3 are ready to take up arms and storm the capitol to make it happen. The New Yorker piece just goes over history and concludes with a sentence about "It is long overdue to end the Court’s undemocratic role in U.S. society" but no actual steps for how achieving that might look. None of these have plans of action, steps forward, or recommendations on viable policy changes to actually achieve this goal that you and Sweet seem to believe is somehow more viable than voting.

So I ask again, what is your realistic plan of action for abolishing the Supreme Court? How are you going about doing that? If voting is pointless, how are you going to abolish the Supreme Court?
 
Honestly just enjoy your day out voting. Put a nice shirt, get a haircut a few hours before, make a voting playlist and rage post the day after it doesn't work. Really live the moment. Tbh @entropy is a far nicer person than me and I know these conversations are a waste of time. Although I did enjoy finding that Biden meme, so not all was lost.

Honestly, just enjoy your day posting meaningless memes all day without any actual discussion of how your beliefs are even possible. Your posts are the real waste of time as they do nothing constructive. I get it. You don't want to actually be challenged to come up with meaningful solutions but just want to act superior and condescending when challenged. Good luck with that, "bro."
 
Honestly, just enjoy your day posting meaningless memes all day without any actual discussion of how your beliefs are even possible. Your posts are the real waste of time as they do nothing constructive. I get it. You don't want to actually be challenged to come up with meaningful solutions but just want to act superior and condescending when challenged. Good luck with that, "bro."
Honestly this very abusive and not at all constructive. Not wonder the democrats can't win votes!.

The Biden meme was a massive hint that I don't want to have a discussion with you, bro.
 
Honestly this very abusive and not at all constructive. Not wonder the democrats can't win votes!.

Why don't you just answer the questions? What needs to happen to abolish the Supreme Court? What next steps do you believe should be taken for that to be possible? What is the plan of action to achieve this goal that you think is not just more viable than voting for change but so obviously more realistic that anyone questioning it just gets stupid memes in response?