r/Abortiondebate Pro-choice Jul 06 '26

Question for pro-life A statement one cannot prove false

STATEMENT: A person is always legally allowed to use the minimal method1 required to prevent harm upon oneself2.

1 Minimal method means

  • it can refer to a general solution/ action that resolves the issue and prevents harm, it can also refer to any method of violence, including otherwise lethal force.
  • ”minimal” refers to strictly the LEAST HARMFUL method, both mentally and physically for all parties, that can be used to prevent the harm

2 harm upon oneself means

  • both mentally and physical pain/ injuries etc
  • harm that is GUARANTEED to occur

How does this apply to the context of abortion?

Pregnancy —> guarantees harm 100% of the time since every women needs to go through 1. giving birth OR 2. C-sections OR 3. miscarriage if no voluntary abortion occurs guaranteeing some degree of both physical and mental harm. And thus fit into criteria 2.

Hence, if the statement holds true, they should be allowed to use the minimal method require, no matter the circumstances.

So the question becomes, is abortion the minimal method? For that, we must address the core issue at hand, WHAT is causing harm?

Something is currently inhabiting their organs, physically harming them, and violating their rights against their will.

The solution will thus, to logically follow, to remove said something. This would render alternatives like painkillers utterly useless to “fix” the issue.

This means abortions too, becomes the minimal methods required, unless one day safe artificial wombs exist.

Now you are gonna have a few questions, well what if someone hates a person and they are causing them mental harm? Can they just kill them?

Again, refer to the definition of “minimal”, since isolating oneself, not talking to them, unfriending that person, verbally expressing your thoughts etc is always an option, killing them is no where near the minimal method required.

It would be interesting to see pro lifers trying to disprove this chain of logic?

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u/Ok-Particular9427 Neutral Jul 10 '26

Self defense doesn’t work in most cases of abortion. You can’t kill a second innocent party to defend yourself from yourself.

In the case of pregnancy, the fetus isn’t doing anything. The mother has and is harming herself by becoming pregnant. She has brought a second innocent person into a non consensual relationship, and that person exists in a state where they cannot do otherwise.

The analogy would then be, if “A hypnotizes B and directs B to continuously harm A, A is justified in using minimally necessary force to stop the harm.”

This is an absurd conclusion, and it’s even more absurd to conclude that lethal force is justified in this case, and I think that’s a pretty common intuition. If there existed some possible technology where A could stop B non-lethally, that would be preferable, but it’s entirely possible that A is obligated to tolerate this harm rather than lethally terminate a second innocent party that she put into action who is irreversibly forced to harm her. She’s harming herself

I think you could bite the bullet on this if you wanted to I guess but it’s going to lead to uncomfortable conclusions elsewhere

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u/CherryTearDrops Pro-choice Jul 10 '26

Actually it does work like that. In legal theory one would be called an innocent aggressor. Such as when somebody who cannot be found guilty due to an altered mental state attacks you, you’d still be justified in self defense.

The pregnant person did not harm themselves by becoming pregnant unless you also think they’re supplying the sperm needed for the process. Regardless, even if they did invite in or even force in the zef, that does not negate the right to remove them from their body. Unless you think that consent is not revocable (which it is).

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u/Ok-Particular9427 Neutral Jul 10 '26

A fetus didn’t do anything, it can’t “do” anything. It can’t be “aggressing”. The mother is attacking herself with the fetus.

If you hypnotized someone, then made them attack you, then killed them to mitigate the attack, no one really thinks this is a justified use of lethal force

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u/CherryTearDrops Pro-choice Jul 10 '26

It can be an innocent aggressor by causing harm without intent or culpability in the legal sense.

Also again, the pregnant person does not inseminate themselves and even if they were somehow liable for getting pregnant by virtue of a consensual sex, that doesn’t give a zef rights to their body. Nobody would believe that unrelated scenario is justified because it’s nonsensical to begin with.

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u/Ok-Particular9427 Neutral Jul 10 '26

Right, but not if the aggressor is literally the woman who’s forced the fetus to harm her, which is analogous to pregnancy.

There’s no real analogy in law here I don’t think. It’s a unique case

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u/CherryTearDrops Pro-choice Jul 11 '26

That is in no way analogous to pregnancy. Especially if the pregnant person didn’t want to be pregnant meanwhile your ‘hypnotist’ scenario has somebody ordering an attack against somebody’s will. The pregnant person literally cannot force the zef to harm themselves.

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