It’s worth reiterating that the debate wasn’t for/against abortion, but for/against allowing women to decide to terminate at any stage of the pregnancy.
In a very tight nutshell, the argument I avoided was “infants aren’t people by any rigorous criteria we (adults) would use to classify ourselves or each other as people. Our protective impulses towards them have a different basis, and aren’t consistent throughout human history.” We decided “infanticide is A-Okay” would not be a popular platform.
The argument I gave was “if you accept abortion is permissible in early pregnancy but not late pregnancy, you have to draw a line somewhere, and proposed bases for drawing that line (foetus viability, ‘consciousness’, etc.) are not up to the task. If you can’t draw the line somewhere, you can’t draw the line anywhere, so pick which bullet you want to bite.”
It looks like the first argument is just the second one taken to it’s logical conclusion. That’s good, because you’re not leading your audience down a faulty path of reasoning.
It’s worth reiterating that the debate wasn’t for/against abortion, but for/against allowing women to decide to terminate at any stage of the pregnancy.
In a very tight nutshell, the argument I avoided was “infants aren’t people by any rigorous criteria we (adults) would use to classify ourselves or each other as people. Our protective impulses towards them have a different basis, and aren’t consistent throughout human history.” We decided “infanticide is A-Okay” would not be a popular platform.
The argument I gave was “if you accept abortion is permissible in early pregnancy but not late pregnancy, you have to draw a line somewhere, and proposed bases for drawing that line (foetus viability, ‘consciousness’, etc.) are not up to the task. If you can’t draw the line somewhere, you can’t draw the line anywhere, so pick which bullet you want to bite.”
It looks like the first argument is just the second one taken to it’s logical conclusion. That’s good, because you’re not leading your audience down a faulty path of reasoning.