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From: cdshaw@watmath.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: Morality and Democracy
Message-ID: <10367@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Dec-84 21:51:45 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.10367
Posted: Wed Dec 12 21:51:45 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Dec-84 03:17:33 EST
References: <540@wucs.UUCP> <223@looking.UUCP> <132@tekchips.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 38

> > Abortion laws are enforced morality.  They differ strongly from murder laws
> > in that quite often the murderer will support the murder laws.  Murder laws
> > don't require this 51% repressing 49% - everybody seems to want them,
> > and everybody knows why they want them - for personal protection and the
> > keeping of the peace.
> 
> Does this mean that if 51% of the population of Mississippi in 1860 favored
> slavery that it should have been allowed to continue?
>     "Anti-slavery laws are enforced morality ..."
> 
> >If you can't see a difference you're too tied up in absolutes.
> 
> With some issues, there is no moral alternative but to take an absolute
> stand.  Many people believe that abortion is (morally) on par with slavery,
> or worse.  They feel a moral obligation to be Abraham Lincoln's with
> respect to the abortion issue.
> 
> 		Steve Vegdahl

Interesting, in fact, it made me think for quite a while before I saw a way
out of this one!! (Of course, it may not work...)

The prime difference I see between abortion & slavery as issues in which
the majority-rule yardstick can be twisted into a pretzel is the issue
which has a pro-choicer saying "but it's obvious that slavery is WRONG
(necessarily), while abortion isn't".

It's called coercion. Slavery is the coercion of a person to perform
tasks against his/her will.

A law that requires a woman to bear (against her will) a child that she 
is pregnant with is coercion, and is therefore wrong. 
As is traditional slavery, which allows people to require another 
person to do work for them for no compensation.

				I remain
				CD Shaw