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From: brianp@shark.UUCP (Brian Peterson)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: Inconsistency in Right-to-life position?
Message-ID: <994@shark.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 19-Aug-84 15:07:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: shark.994
Posted: Sun Aug 19 15:07:55 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 22-Aug-84 00:50:45 EDT
References: <476@ames.UUCP>, <25@gymble.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 40

93   From: davew@gymble.UUCP (David Weber)
93   I happen to be against abortion in all cases for the simple fact
93   that I believe it is the murder of an innocent life.  If you lower
93   your standard just a little once, you'll probably lower it more later.
93   If abortion is O.K. in the case of rape today, someday it will be O.K.
93   in other cases as well.
Have you ever stepped on a bug?  I bet you've slaughtered zillions of
innocent microbes.  Do you eat totally artificial food?  People have to
kill innocent life all the time.  This is because they themselves are
alive.  "Our" standards have hit real bad lows.  People have advocated
the extermination of entire races, and there have been lots of "holy" wars.
But we are not still there, nor are we worse.  People bring us back up,
and fight against aberrant people.  There is not an absolute "right"
that everyone can see glowing in the sky, and follow to a good and
healthy life where everyone is happy.  Everyone does the "right" thing,
and there are problems because there are different standards for everybody.
There is no one "true rightness".  If abortion is ok in other cases,
(and it does not necessarily follow from rape abortions), then it is ok.
Ok is ok.  Ok?   Things change.  We shouldn't declare for all eternity
what is proper, because we don't know everything.  We DO NOT know
everything.  Thus we must allow choices.  The pro-choice stand lets many ways
be tried.  If there are definitely problems with allowing abortions,
then most everybody will see them, and the situation will (probably)
change.  The pro-life stand limits us to one way, even if it is the
most harmful way.

93   The bottom line in the abortion issue is "Are you sure that abortion
93   is not murder of an innocent life?"  Unless you are sure, why take
93   the risk?  Remember, the burden of proof is on the pro-choice, not
93   the the pro-life.  Innocent until proven guilty.
What logic leads you to think that the burden of proof is on the pro-choice?
"Pro-choice" and "pro-life" are just two sides of a debate.  The pro-choicers
are innocent until proven guilty, right?

I want to make one bold guess:  If adoption becomes trivially easy,
there still will be many more young people than are wanted in the world.
(assuming abortion and birth control and high standards of living don't
 suddenly appear in the poorer nations of the world)

Brian Peterson  {ucbvax, ihnp4, }  !tektronix!shark!brianp