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- Xref: sparky talk.abortion:34614 alt.abortion.inequity:3425
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!rigel.econ.uga.edu!mills
- From: mills@uga.edu (Kathi Mills)
- Newsgroups: talk.abortion,alt.abortion.inequity
- Subject: Re: Observations
- Message-ID: <1992Sep3.001708.22093@rigel.econ.uga.edu>
- Date: 3 Sep 92 00:17:08 GMT
- Sender: news@rigel.econ.uga.edu
- Distribution: usa
- Organization: University of Georgia Economics Department
- Lines: 176
-
- > Stevens
- >> Ferrari
- >>> Stevens
- >>>> R. Cage
-
- >>Regardless of whether or not she makes the decision "unilaterally," SHE
- >>must bear the pain, sickness, serious health risks, and possibility of
- >>death UNNILATERALLY. That fact gives her the right to decide whether or
- >>not she will accept those risks unilaterally, although few choose to exercise
- >>this right.
-
- >You state your beliefs. I, obviously, disagree. Just make sure you realize
- >that you ARE stating beliefs, not facts.
-
- It is nnot a "belief" that "SHE must bear the pain, sickness, serious health
- risks, and possibility of death UNILATERALLY." It is a fact.
-
- >>a woman seeking an abortion realizes she cannot handle
- >>this pregnancy and the child that would result for whatever reason.
-
- >Not true. Many abortions are requested for the reason that the child
- >would change the woman's life in a way she WON'T handle, not because
- >she COULDN'T handle it.
-
- Well, if you consider it selfish nnot to want to be on welfare, to complete
- your education, to be alive, thenn yes, I'd agree that she WON'T handle it.
-
- >>A woman
- >>seeking ann abortion is trying to avoid becoming a burden onn others -
- >>taxpayers, her family.
-
- >It is not absolute that a woman MUST be a burden on others.
-
- In the case of a woman being forced to bear a child she does not want, it
- is quite likely.
-
- >>>Guess what? You are also on the side of those who want to make laws that
- >>>*rule out* other people being able to practice their beliefs. You want
- >>>abortion legal, even though passing law to make it so would violate the
- >>>practice of other peoples religious beliefs.
-
- >>That is bullshit. No one is forcing you to support abortion (or to have
- >>one, if you were female).
-
- >Wrong. I can be legally forced to 'support' an abortion. Remember, under
- >the current system, I have NO SAY AT ALL. Just an obligation to pay
- >through the nose.
-
- Pay through the nose?! Health care in this counntry is grossly underfunded!
- You pay a hell of a lot more for OTHER instruments of killing, such as
- ICBMs, military bases, and military weapons, than you do for abortion -
- do you oppose them too?
-
- Not to mentionn the fact that you pay a hell of a lot more for an unwanted
- child who is neglected because the mother has to work two jobs, annd ends
- up onn welfare, state supported rehabilitation, and prison.
-
- >>It is NOT a legitimate "practice of religious
- >>beliefs" to force others to conform to your ideology.
-
- >Once again you state beliefs that are contradictory to facts. There are
- >many laws on the books that enforce others to conform to christian
- >ideology.
-
- Annd if they do not prohibit direct harm to others, such as blue laws and
- sodomy laws, I oppose them too.
-
- >>Your right to
- >>practice your religion ends where my rights begin, such as my right to
- >>privacy.
-
- >If this were true, prostitution would be legal. It is not, because the
- >right you state, is not absolute.
-
- Another law that I oppose.
-
- >>As a ridiculousness test, how would you like it if my religion
- >>involved forcing everyone that I consider to be a pinhead to pass a physical
- >>test that involved a serious risk to your health and life, and to that end
- >>I was forced to kidnap you and torture you to uphold my religious beliefs?
- >
- >Correct. Ridiculous. Because you have no interest in what I do, but I
- >DO have an interest in what a woman does if she is carrying our child.
-
- No you donn't. I have a HELL of a lot more interest in you, who are working
- to take away my rights, than a private woman deciding what to do about a
- pregnancy inn which you are nnont innvolved.
-
- >>You wouldn't *dream* of enforcing the laws againnst kidnapping and assault,
- >>now would you, since you'd be violating my RIGHT to practice my religion?
-
- >Actually, the ideal choice would be to establish a hierarchy of rights.
- >If a family agrees to follow a strictly fundamentalist christian set of
- >rules, then the man, as head of the household, would have final say.
-
- Annd families who *don'T* choose to follow "a strictly fundamentalist set
- of rules"?
-
- >In other familys, the rules that were chosen at the incorporation of the
- >marriage would hold sway.
-
- No chance to change their minnd, eh?
-
- >This would resolve your point about religious freedom by allowing you to
- >exercise control over others, if your religion supports this, so long as
- >they are members of your religion.
-
- The key phrase being "so long as they are members of your religion," I
- am not a member of your religion, therefore you have no right to tell me
- not to have an abortion.
-
- Not that I think you have a right to tell me or anybody else, includinng
- a member of your religion, what to do inn any case.
-
- Why do you have such a profound problem with allowing people to make up
- their own minds about the one decision that coiuld affect THEIR lives,
- NOT YOURS, so profoundly?
-
- >>Or, for a more realistic example, the religion of KKK members involves the
- >>continual harassment of, terrorism against, and killing select members of,the
- >>the following groups: African Americans, Catholics, immigrants, Jews, and
- >>non-traditional women. By your criterion above, you would not stop them
- >>since that would entail the enforcement of laws "that *rule out* [the KKK]
- >>being able to practice their beliefs."
-
- >Neat. But dead wrong, as you totally missed the point that I do not support
- >the idea of interfering in a process that I am not involved with. I simply
- >think that if the child is mine, I should have a say in what happens to it.
-
- I don't think there is a SINGLE soul onn this newsgroup that would claim
- that if the child is yours, you should not "have a say in what happens to
- it." Pro-choicers believe, quite logically, that the amount of "say" should
- approximate the amount of stake the individual has in the decision. Since
- NO ONE has more at stake in the decision of whether or not to terminnate a
- pregnancy than the mother, NO ONNE has more "say." Thus, the FINAL decision
- must be hers.
-
- Annd, if your statement that you "do not support the idea of interfering
- in a process that [you are] not innvolved with" is true, it must
- necessarily follow that you do not support anti-choice legislation.
-
- >So it would be hypocritical of you to fight against me trying to pass laws
- >that restrict your right to impose your beliefs on me.
-
- It would be hypocritical of you to interfere "inn a process that [you are]
- not innvolved with."
-
- >If you and your SO want to have your child aborted, do so. But when I'm
- >involved, I should have the right to be involved in the decision making.
-
- There's nnot a soul here who would deny you that right - as long as
- beinng "involved inn the decision making" means only expressing your
- opinions, not using any kind of coercion or force.
-
- >>The father, IF he is responsible, IF he did attempt to prevent conceptionn in
- >>the first place, annd IF he has a good relationship with the mother, DOES
- >>deserve to have his opinion onn the matter heard. However, as the woman is
- >>the SOLE bearer of threat to health and life, she makes the SOLE decision
- >>concerninng such risk.
-
- >I disagree. By this reasoning, since only MEN bear the risks involved in
- >creating and maintaining a free America, a woman should have her opinion
- >listened to, but MEN should be the sole decision makers.
-
- By WHAT fantasy criterion are men the only ones "involved in creating and
- maintainninng a free America"? You're sure you on the third planet?
-
- >You, and many other pro-aborts that I have listened to, seem to be incredibly
- >sexist. You support UNequal rights based on sex.
-
- Name ONE way inn which I support UNNequal rights based onn sex. Keep in
- mind that I am NOT a feminnist, I am an equalist.
- --
- "A woman voting for a Republican is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders."
-
- Ferrari (mills@rolf.stat.uga.edu)
-