You won’t ever get a majority of the population to agree to this view. If you hold staunchly that all the way up until 40 weeks women should be allowed to abort, you will lose at least 75% of the vote. At some point the fetus is developed enough we have to consider its life, regardless of its current location.
I think we could push viability as a compromise for everyone. That’s around 21-24 weeks, depending on what is considered acceptable potential life chance. Conservatives will say that’s too developed, some progressives will claim your view, but I think most would at least compromise that if we could safely take the baby out, that should be the legal option at that point. That also gives the mother a lot of time to consider her options.
Many fatal fetal anomalies aren’t detected until the scan done between 18-23 weeks. So that doesn’t “give the mother a lot of time.” Especially in states that add legal hoops for her to jump through, and where the nearest place to perform an abortion is several hundred miles away in another state. Usually in those cases she’s forced to put the dying fetus through much more trauma, as well as the risk to her own health and life. You can tell yourself they’ll make exceptions in those cases but the reality is they won’t act until she’s crashing from sepsis, because they fear (with good reason) being reported and arrested and losing their license.
“Do women have bodily autonomy” is a yes or no question. You’re implicitly adopting the framing that says “no, they don’t”, which is why you think there’s some need to compromise to be moderate.
The answer to “do you have the right to withhold your labor” isn’t “not if it’s only for a few months”, it’s “yes”.
Women can end pregnancies without abortion. Just like America can have “territorial integrity” without putting floating barbed-wire meshes in the Rio Grand.
You won’t ever get a majority of the population to agree to this view. If you hold staunchly that all the way up until 40 weeks women should be allowed to abort, you will lose at least 75% of the vote. At some point the fetus is developed enough we have to consider its life, regardless of its current location.
I think we could push viability as a compromise for everyone. That’s around 21-24 weeks, depending on what is considered acceptable potential life chance. Conservatives will say that’s too developed, some progressives will claim your view, but I think most would at least compromise that if we could safely take the baby out, that should be the legal option at that point. That also gives the mother a lot of time to consider her options.
Many fatal fetal anomalies aren’t detected until the scan done between 18-23 weeks. So that doesn’t “give the mother a lot of time.” Especially in states that add legal hoops for her to jump through, and where the nearest place to perform an abortion is several hundred miles away in another state. Usually in those cases she’s forced to put the dying fetus through much more trauma, as well as the risk to her own health and life. You can tell yourself they’ll make exceptions in those cases but the reality is they won’t act until she’s crashing from sepsis, because they fear (with good reason) being reported and arrested and losing their license.
“Do women have bodily autonomy” is a yes or no question. You’re implicitly adopting the framing that says “no, they don’t”, which is why you think there’s some need to compromise to be moderate.
The answer to “do you have the right to withhold your labor” isn’t “not if it’s only for a few months”, it’s “yes”.
Women can end pregnancies without abortion. Just like America can have “territorial integrity” without putting floating barbed-wire meshes in the Rio Grand.