Should there be limits on abortion?
boghossian.substack.com
Should there be limits on abortion?
Peter Boghossian presented the claim “Abortion should be legal” to a man and woman in Austin, Texas. The participants discussed bodily autonomy and whether the trimester of pregnancy should have any impact on the law. They came to a mutually satisfactory definition of “abortion” when it became clear that they understood the concept differently.
The woman shared her personal decision to have an abortion and defended a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy “at any time for any reason.” She rejected the man’s suggestion of a conflict presented by the fetus’ right to life in advanced pregnancy. They also considered whether men can get pregnant.
That was a rough one to listen to. She’s so confident and spouts nonsense, and won’t have it any other way. A true believer
Question that is never asked: Is a woman entitled to bodily autonomy---to be medically rendered "unpregnant," or is she entitled to a dead baby? Because in the case of abortion after so many weeks (I think it's fourteen but might be more), the baby must be delivered just like any birth, either vaginally or by C-section, but the baby doesn't have to be killed first. I see no natural right for the mother to kill a viable fetus; she may have the right to have the fetus removed from her body but once the baby is out, the baby has the same rights as any other premature baby. Compassionate care until death, if the baby is too premature, and medical care with the aim of survival if the fetus is old enough to survive.
Think about it. It happens sometimes that, in the course of dilating the cervix in anticipation of an abortion, the fetus emerges alive. There she or he is, laying on the table, gasping for breath. Hey, the mother came there for a dead baby so I suppose the medical team should step up and inject with poison to enforce the rights of the mother? Suppose the father is there. He had no right to impose nor to deny the abortion, but now that his daughter is born, alive, doesn't he have every right to direct that baby's care?