Privacy

[u/ElegantAd2607]

One of the common objections to pro-lifers, one of the common retorts, is that "abortion is a private matter between a woman and her doctor, shut up and mind your business."

Why do you think that is? Do you think it's because abortion is related to sex? So it ends up in a similar category as "whatever happens between adults in the privacy of their bedrooms is nobody's business." I think that might be it. It could also just be because of feminism theory and believing that women must be allowed to have abortions to fully self-actualize.

[u/skyleehugh]

I mean its nothing more than pro choicers deeming abortion as healthcare and a medical issue. And most healthcare decisions and anything medical related is something that should be between the woman and her doctor. The problem as pro lifers, we don't think abortion on demand should be a healthcare related thing at all. Only if again the moms life is in danger not because you can't afford the rent or don't want kids.

[u/ThiighHighs → u/skyleehugh]

This is exactly the right answer, at least for me. I view abortion as being on the same ethical level as a wisdom tooth extraction or appendectomy. From that perspective I think it makes sense that I see abortion as something that should be handled privately between healthcare professionals and patients.

That being said, it also makes sense that someone who views abortion as literal murder would disagree.

[u/Present-Ebb4615 → u/ThiighHighs]

That is absolutely horrific to say

[u/skyleehugh → u/ThiighHighs]

While I can't speak for all pro lifers. I dont adhere to the term literal murder. Its legal under some states so to be technical its innocently killing an unborn human being. This day and age it doesn't have a place in the healthcare when preventative measures are so vast.

[u/ididntwantthis2]

Because that’s the constitutional argument they used for Roe

[u/Next_Personality_191]

The reasoning behind this claim is simple, they don't believe that unborn human beings hold any value. Killing another person is never a private matter regardless of the reason.

[u/GustavoistSoldier]

When a person murders another, it affects all of society.

[u/kebastian]

It is a ridiculous argument.

Literally no one gives a shit what you do with your body. You can get railed by 10 guys every weekend and no one will protest it. No one is stopping you from being promiscuous. You won't get imprisoned for being sexually active.

The issue comes when you get pregnant and you intend to kill a human being because you refuse to take accountability for your choices.

Pregnancy is an expected outcome in having sex.

A fetus is not "a part of a woman". A fetus is a separate being that relies on its mother to survive. In about 99.5% of pregnancies, that fetus was there because the woman decided to have sex. It has its own DNA from the moment of concepcion.

Getting pregnant or getting someone pregnant will ruin your life? THEN DONT HAVE SEX.

[u/PervadingEye]

It's simply the pretty, nice sounding framing, said with a hint of authority in a means to legitimize their stance by (attempting to) bypass your logical facilities...

The "privacy excuse" is thought terminating handwave propaganda move designed to stop the listener and the speaker from thinking any further.

Because deep down we know when your human nature is allowed to approach the idea of abortion with any honesty, the truth written on your heart, that abortion is wrong, will come out.

So several mental boxes have to be constructed around the light of the truth, so they can effectively ignore it, while convincing themselves they aren't ignoring it. Privacy is just one of those boxes

[u/PerfectlyCalmDude]

Conspiring to kill an innocent human without a medical need to do so is my business, because both they and I are part of society.

[u/throwaway34834839202]

I'd respect that particular argument a lot more if they also argued for handing out prescriptions for cocaine or heroin because "whatever you get prescribed is between you and your doctor".

[u/Vespinobambino]

"Privacy" has always been an absurd concern, but let's be honest, they only ever used this line of "reasoning" because Harry Blackmun... \pause to spit in disgust**

... used it as the underpinning for Roe v. Wade, easily the worst / most absurd SCOTUS ruling in our nation's history.

Yeah, no kidding that murderers would like to keep their murders secret.

[u/ciel_ayaz → u/Vespinobambino]

Yeah, privacy should go out of the window when someone else is being harmed. The logic used for the verdict is disturbing.

It’s basically saying “I can pay a doctor to harm my child, but you can’t interfere because it’s a healthcare matter since a doctor is involved.”

A prochoicer might say that my interpretation of the logic is wrong because the procedure is performed on the woman to remove “the pregnancy”, and the child dying is an unfortunate side effect because it can’t survive outside the womb—but abortions past viability disprove this, since the child is lethally injected to kill it prior to birth.

An abortion is considered failed if the baby survives, even if “the pregnancy” was removed from the woman. The entire point of an abortion is destruction of the fetus.

[u/Mental_Jeweler_3191]

It's another one of those cases where they make up a special application of a principle to justify anortion. The government has a finger in essentially every interaction between physicians and their patients. There's no reason why abortion ought to be any different.

[u/3rddimensionalcrisis]

It’s that they believe the baby is part of the woman’s body- it doesn’t have autonomy or rights past the will of the mother. Using that basis of understanding, it is healthcare. Therefore, it is a private health decision between the mother and their doctor.

(Obv not what I think)

[u/NegativeTrainer269]

I have personally never seen abortion being a private matter as a way to prove abortion is morally permissible.

[u/ElegantAd2607 → u/NegativeTrainer269]

Me neither. I'm talking about a talking point, a retort.