Sorry, Man. I’m Not Stumped.
Abortion is a touchy subject, not just because it taps into deep emotions on both sides but also because there really is no good answer. Having a reasonable and consistent opinion requires a lot of thought. When someone thinks they have it all figured out, you can be sure that they’ve barely even begun to think about the subject.
Which brings me to this post, by a former Christian named Daniel Floren who claims to have it all figured out. He’s concocted what he believes is The Unanswerable Question, guaranteed to stump any one who opposed abortion. Mind you, folks have been wrestling with the issue for decades, but he’s got it all boiled down into one question.
Did you know you can stump anti-abortionists with one simple question?
Just ask them this:
If abortion was illegal, what should be done with the women who have illegal abortions?
Now watch their faces as the cognitive dissonance sets in. They believe abortion to be murder. Murder deserves severe punishment
Sorry, to disappoint, Daniel, but it took me about six seconds to come up with an answer your question, and that included the three seconds it took for me to light a cigarette and take along drag.
My answer is this: nothing.
But he’s already figured that one out and believes he has a clever series of follow up questions designed to trap his far less intelligent opponent. Except that he’s not terribly clever because hasn’t thought things through nearly as well as he believe he has.
Here is his reasoning: if you believe that abortion is murder, you must require a severe sanction against anyone to commits it. Game, set, and match, right?
Wrong. That line doesn’t work, for two reasons. First, we as a society already understand that, legally, there are different kinds of murder and we punish them differently. We have degrees of murder so clearly not all murder is equal. More importantly, though, we understand that the purpose of a law against murder is not to punish the murderer but to prevent murders. Laying a heavy sanction on doctors who perform the abortion provides an effective deterrent (and perhaps even a more effective deterrent because a doctor would not only face jail time but the loss of his license and irreparable damage to his professional reputation).
Sanctioning doctors also proved a more clear-cut legal solution. It could reasonably be argued that a woman seeking an abortion is not fully culpable for her actions. She could (and often is) acting under real or perceived duress. A good lawyer could always argue diminished capacity, physically or mentally. That wouldn’t be true in every case, but it would certainly be true in enough cases to make prosecuting the law problematic. A doctor doesn’t have similar conflicts. One could claim that the doctor felt strong empathy with his patient, but saying “I felt bad for her” hasn’t been a very good defense against murder in the past.
The truth is, as I said earlier, abortion is a tough issue. There are no clean answers where everyone walks away unaffected. To say that you have devised the One True Stumper is not only disrespectful to those who have thought long and hard about the matter, but supremely arrogant and immature. Daniel would be a lot better off taking time to learn what pro-life people believe, and why they believe it, and a lot less time patting himself on the back for making fun of them. He might learn something in the process.
Other Posts of Interest:
- Brokaw Let Biden off the Hook
- Is Sarah Palin Hated Because Trig Palin’s Alive?
- William Ayers Whitewashes History and the Blood on His Hands
Category: The Social Issues
Thanks for the link! You said:
Where do I claim this? Actually, I claim the opposite. I don't have lots of things figured out, and what I do think I have figured out I could be wrong. Not sure why you said I claimed I have it all figured out — it's the exact opposite of what I claim!
Also, I didn't create the question, and I never claimed it would stump all anti-abortionists. Just many of the godbots holding up signs because "the Lord called them."
Gosh, I knew I should have spent more than 15 minutes on that post!
Though I've been a pro-lifer for over a decade, and still do not like it, I know I don't know all the pro-life arguments. And I agree it's a difficult issue. I wish we lived in a world where no one wanted to have abortions. And I support people who want to help women in tough situations. But I also think it should be safe, legal, and rare.
Thanks for your thoughts, even if they were a bit barbed.
It's hard to read your post and not conclude that you think you have the ultimate stumper, especially given your post title. I would never have guessed that you were pro-life from the tone and content of the post either.
The problem with "safe, legal, and rare" is that doing the first two makes the third very difficult.
Daniel – First I admit I didn't watch the video; not sure how much value it would provide other than it seems to be an attempt to show that pro-lifers don't know what they are talking about. I have to disagree with the premise….
Lots of people know that rape is wrong yet clearly, the punishment of such a crime is certainly wide open. As Jimmie said, there are levels when it comes to murder and so there are levels on the issue of rape also; whether you are talking about statutory rape, or date rape, or the worst kind where someone violently rapes a random stranger or a child. People do disagree on the punishment of such crimes & I'm sure there are plenty of people who haven't given a thought to what the actual penalties should be. Does that mean they are "stumped" on whether or not rape is wrong?
Say for example, we had a pro-rape movement in this country. This video is probably the equivalent of the pro-rape movement going around interviewing anti-rape people; finding out that they haven't given much thought to the amount of punishment that should be given for such a crime. And then concluding that their position regarding the wrongness of the act is somehow on shaky ground based on their lack of forethought regarding a just penalty.
That said, I have given it some thought…and I do believe that if we ever get to the point where we could make most abortions illegal, then yes, I do think there should be penalties against the mother. (As with any law, there must be an enforcement mechanism.) But of course, this penalty would vary, just like with any other crime where a number of variables will determine how much probation, education/treatment or jail time….yes, jail time an offender would receive.