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From: betsy@dartvax.UUCP (Betsy Hanes Perry)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: Who's Life Anyway?
Message-ID: <3308@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28-Jun-85 15:00:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: dartvax.3308
Posted: Fri Jun 28 15:00:17 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Jul-85 06:06:49 EDT
References: <556@bgsuvax.UUCP> <283@vaxwaller.UUCP> <710@ihlpg.UUCP>
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Lines: 41

> 
> Come on.  You didn't answer the question.  Every freedom carries 
> responsibility with it.  If you want the freedom, you had best be ready for
> the responsibility.
> 
> 				Jean Marie Diaz
 
Could we have a little more reason and a little less rhetoric here?
 
Examine the statement:  "Every freedom entails responsibilities."  Sounds
nice; what does it mean?  What responsibilities go with the freedom
to breathe?  What responsibilities go with the freedom to brush your hair?
(Maybe keeping your combings off the common floor?)  A more accurate 
statement would be "Each society grants freedoms and requires certain
responsibilities in its turn.  The responsibilities are often associated
with the freedoms."  Less catchy, but you can't have everything.
 
In any case, I would agree that the freedom to fornicate carries with
it the responsibility to provide against (or for) progeny.  However,
many of us don't consider it "irresponsible" to back-up the unreliable
methods of contraception available with abortion.  (I hold no moral book
for people who don't bother with contraception and get caught.)  So many
pro-choicers *are* "prepared for the responsibility" of unwanted pregnancy;
they are prepared to undergo a surgical procedure to deal with that
responsibility.  We can reasonably argue the morality of that decision
in this forum, but calling abortions "irresponsible" without justifying
the term is not a reasonable argument.
 
Does anybody else out here think this forum's main purpose is justifying
our collective paranoia about "the other side"?  I mean, I still shiver
at the thought of the guy who wanted to legislate women's behavior
(smoking, drinking, etc.) during pregnancy, and I've heard equally appalling
 sweeping statements (children should be abortable until
age three) made by people theoretically on 'my' side.
 
-- 
Elizabeth Hanes Perry                        
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"Ooh, ick!" -- Penfold