I'm pro-choice, and you make a valid argument. If I were pro life (which I used to be), I'd probably be saying the same thing. The problem with the issue of abortion is that there's such an incredibly grey area in between sides, but people tend to act as if it were a black and white issue. One guy's going "There's no grey area when it comes to killing childen!!!", and another's going "There's no grey area in forcing women to have kids!!!".
The issue is decided by how it's framed. No one thinks killing kids should be legal and very few think that, say, condoms kill babies. The question that no one knows the answer to is "When does a sperm and an egg become a child?" One's answer to that question determines whether they're pro-life or pro-choice.
After much thought, in my head I've drawn that line as "at or near birth". I can see the logic of saying that when a fetus can live outside the womb freely, it could be considered a child... so I could understand someone drawing that line at a month or two before birth. However, most pro-lifers draw the line at conception, and they're certainly entitled to draw it wherever they want seeing as it is an opinion, but it doesn't pass the test of reason for me.
And since I don't accept the reasoning, I don't accept abortion as murder. If we were talking about, say, abortion 2 days before expected delivery, then I most likely would. And so does the government.
Now, how do we use the slavery/"inferior human beings with fewer rights" argument to argue against abortion, but keep that argument from being used in regards to homosexuality? Thoughts?
I occasionally jump out of airplanes, as part of my employment with Uncle Sam. This metaphor sprung into my head upon reading your above line.
Imagine that you jump out of an airplane, and you realize that your parachute doesn't work? When should you be considered dead? At 1000 feet? 100? 10? Once you hit zero, you'll be medically and legally dead, but at what point are you pretty much assured to die?
Most people haven't fallen from such a height, but I can assure you that things don't look nearly as real from 1000 feet then they do at 10. It's never real to me until the last few seconds.
I'd say, being pregnant is pretty much the same thing, just in reverse. Once you start the process, the conclusion is pretty inevitible (barring miscarriages or suddenly correcting your parachute malfunction), regardless of how things appear to you at the time.
Now, how do we use the slavery/"inferior human beings with fewer rights" argument to argue against abortion, but keep that argument from being used in regards to homosexuality? Thoughts?
Easy. With slavery and abortion, the discrimination is automatic and arbitrary. You are black, hence I can enslave you. You are unborn, hence I can kill you.
The victim, in each case, doesn't do anything. They simple ARE.
With homosexuality, a group isn't being singled out arbitrarily. Individuals are singling themselves out by their personal actions.
Hollywood types who scream 'censorship' fall for the same logical fallacy when they say stupid things and find themselves less popular. No one is 'discriminating' against them for who or what they are. They DID something that caused other people not to like them.
People should not be discriminated against for what they are. That has nothing to do with being judged by your actions. There is 'right to be approved for anything you do'.
I guess you've never heard of partial birth abortion. That is where they stop delivery of the baby at the birth canal, punch a hole in the back of its skull with a pair of scissors and then suck its brains out. Again, that is during delivery.
That may be the way you want to frame the question but others would like to ask "when does it become a human life?" Since the DoI declares that we have an inalienable right to life it is a Constitutional question.
So when does an embryonic human begin life?
No, they don't.
Ever hear of partial birth abortion?
Thankfully, we're on the cusp of outlawing it.
Who's forcing women to have kids? If they don't want to have a baby there are certain things they can do to avoid it...
1.Use a condom.
2.Use birth control.
3.Abstain from having sex!
This seems to reek of Common sense...is that the reason pro choice people find it so hard to grasp it?