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From: tdn@cmu-cs-spice.ARPA (Thomas Newton)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: What if?
Message-ID: <427@cmu-cs-spice.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 13-Aug-85 20:12:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: cmu-cs-s.427
Posted: Tue Aug 13 20:12:42 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 15-Aug-85 08:36:23 EDT
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 36

> > 
> > But you're placing the decision point at the wrong place -- it is possible
> > to avoid pregnancy, although you may have to go without sex to do so -- so
> > you can't say 'I couldn't prevent this pregnancy' -- the pregnancy is a
> > direct result of a CHOICE that you made to have sex.  If you can break the
> > cause-and-effect relationship between sex and pregnancy, do so.  But it is
> > not fair to say "my right to sex without consequences outweighs someone
> > else's right to live".

> What about rape?  This is a serious question:  do you support abortion
> in the case of rape?  If so, why are those unborn babies different
> from other unborn babies?

Pregnancies resulting from rape & incest are a nasty case, since neither the
woman or the fetus had any say in creating the situation, and no matter what
is done, someone loses.

My personal feelings are that in these cases, the fetus should be allowed to
live.  I realize that this imposes hardship on the rape victim, but going the
other way imposes much worse hardship on the child.  But I also think that the
government should try to reduce the hardship on the woman as much as possible
by providing psychiatric counseling, arranging to place the baby for adoption,
etc.  (the first of these should be supplied to all rape victims).  And every
convicted rapist should be thrown into prison for a very, very long time (none
of this out-in-2-years-to-seek-another-victim stuff).

> If not, then choice has nothing to do with it, nor does responsibility.

What I'm saying is that it's possible to argue against more than 99 percent of
all abortions on BOTH right-to-life and choice/responsibility grounds.  And in
fact, it seems to be precisely unwanted pregnancies resulting from *voluntary*
sex that Todd Jones is concerned about.  His post raves on and on; given his
outlook, I thought a choice/responsibility argument to be most appropriate.

                                        -- Thomas Newton
                                           Thomas.Newton@cmu-cs-spice.ARPA