From: utzoo!decvax!genradbo!mitccc!jfw Newsgroups: net.women Title: Re: pro-choice groups Article-I.D.: mitccc.441 Posted: Wed Mar 9 23:32:27 1983 Received: Thu Mar 10 05:44:34 1983 References: brunix.1836 Regarding 80% of Americans being in favor of abortions, yet 73% wishing to limit abortions...a call for theories is out, so here are a few: The theories are not necessarily the opinions of the author. 1) Rather than labelling the fetus as HUMAN x-or NONHUMAN, perhaps many people regard it as a gray scale, and regard the limitation as a tradeoff. Since this position requires thought to be created and understood, I am sure very few people hold to it, since I have a rather pessimistic view of the average person... 2) They really have no opinion, but figure that being in the middle keeps either side from getting too angry at them. 3) The punishment theory, while I know several people who seem to hold to it, rarely seems to be a conscious motive -- it is necessary to do some digging to elicit from most people (in my observation), and most still won't admit to it when pressed. Read "The Harm That Good Men Do", by Samuel Clemens (sorry, I don't have a pointer to where it is anthologized). Any other theories? Any other cynics out there? How about our own newsgroup, where we can go and be miserable together...:-) John Woods, ...!decvax!genradbo!mitccc!jfw ...!eagle!mitccc!jfw ...!floyd!mitccc!jfw