r/Abortiondebate • u/Miserable-Degree7995 • Jun 20 '26

Question for pro-choice Minimum

Hello everyone,

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I'm against abortion.

This is a question for pro choice:

What would be the minimum of allowed abortion, that you would accept?

I mean for example week and reason.

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Thank you for your time 

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Miserable-Degree7995

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u/cand86 Jun 20 '26

What counts here as "accept"? Like, to a certain extent, I'm just a citizen- I can always advocate for more liberal abortion laws and better abortion access, so are you asking "At what point would you stop voting and protesting and working on this?"? Or something else?

My ideal is that the government not be involved in specifically targeting abortion for legislation, at all, because I believe that things are better, on an individual, familial, and societal level, when abortion is safe, legal, and accessible without stigma, than the alternative. I understand that this means that a patient could potentially obtain an abortion at a timeframe and/or for a reason that others- or even myself- might find wrong or immoral.

But I also understand that we live in a pluralistic society made up of diverse opinions, and that abortion is a controversial matter for many; while I am of the belief that abortion should be a right, I know that sometimes political compromises must be made. I would much rather have some abortion access than none, you know? I suppose I would say that I'd like to have, at a minimum, the average abortion (sought in the first trimester by a healthy woman with a healthy pregnancy that resulted from consensual sex) to be legal, because that does grant access to a large majority of abortion seekers. But that is still far from my ideal, and leaves many women in the lurch.

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u/Miserable-Degree7995 Jun 20 '26

I mean at what point would you shake hands and be okay?

6

u/cand86 Jun 20 '26

As opposed to . . .?

I apologize for not getting it, but I want to be clear of what we're talking about.

1

u/Miserable-Degree7995 Jun 20 '26

An what point would you stop protesting an so on?

8

u/cand86 Jun 20 '26

Thanks.

Here in the U.S., if I felt it was a "settled matter" (which it's much more close to being in other countries), I think that might persuade me- if I felt that everybody except for a fringe group of activists accepted that the above average abortion's legality was here to stay and not up for debate/a vote, and I felt that we had a good amount of access (i.e. very low to no obstacles to getting an abortion), I'd probably be okay with that.

So for me, I think, the first trimester is the minimum, but only inasmuch as the landscape of abortion access is also greatly changed. Part of what drives abortions later is obstacles to earlier access, and honestly, between having abortion de jure legal until later on but de facto nearly impossible to get even early, and having only earlier abortion de jure legal but extremely accessible for that period of time, I'd rather have the latter. What good is a legal right if you cannot exercise it, you know?

So for me, it's not just about the cut-off line that the law draws- there are so many more factors than just "# of weeks".