[IdaBriggs]

>So if I said "I respect your right not to own a slave" would you recognize my "right to own a slave?"

No. While slavery was legal during biblical times (and still is in some parts of the world), the people of the United States have decided that it is not something we accept (as of the 1860's!) because "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" (sorry if I'm mucking up the quote!) and I respect the Constitution of our country. My only regret is that it took so long before we understood it correctly.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Ok, read his quote as if we're talking in 1804. When it was very legal.

[chs68]

"No. While slavery was legal during biblical times (and still is in some parts of the world), the people of the United States have decided that it is not something we accept (as of the 1860's!) because "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" (sorry if I'm mucking up the quote!) and I respect the Constitution of our country. My only regret is that it took so long before we understood it correctly."

OK, but you do understand that when it was legal for some human beings to hold other human beings in bondage, it was also felt that the Declaration of Independence (with its language about "all men being endowed by their creator, etc") did not apply to slaves.

Slaves were, by definition, not "human beings".

Because, of course, that would have meant that those who held slaves were holding -- in bondage -- other human beings.

Now, of course, people who are pro-choice with reagrd to whether a woman should be allowed to hire a doctor to kill her unborn child point to the "fact" that aa fetus is not a human being.

But, of course, an fetus is a human being. Because if it is not a human being, what, then is it?

Just as the slave owners of old could not admit gthat they held other human beings in bondage, and so had to de-humanize their slaves, so those who support abortion as an option must de-humanize the victims of their notions.

Eventually, the notion that unborn children are human beings who do not deserve to be killed will become as wide-spread as the notion that Black people are human beings who do not deserve to be held in bondage.

My only regret is that it will take so long before we understand that correctly.

[Repairman Jack]

the people of the United States have decided that it is not something we accept (as of the 1860's!) because "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"

So why would you deny those same rights to an unborn person?

[Indy Pendance]

"all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"

This is your problem, you don't see an unborn baby as a human, conservatives generally do. But, yet you grieved your lost unborn children. (I also had miscarriages, I understand you here) So, your quote, to us is applicable to the unborn children as well as born babies. At what point does a baby become a human? At conception? At 3 months, 6 months, at birth?

[rintense]

My only regret is that it took so long before we understood it correctly.

And that is how Pro-Lifers feel about abortion. If and when this country does overturn Rv.W, will you feel this same thing?

Life, any life, is a gift from God Himself. Willingly taking that life of your own free will violates His will.

[sweetliberty]

"all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"

Look closely at that phrase. The most fundamental of rights granted by the Constitution, which acknowledges the Creator, by the way, is the right to life. It doesn't say that a person is only entitled to that life when he or she reaches a certain gestational or chronological age.