No subject in American politics exhibits our reliance on strawman more than the abortion debate. ( kbin.social )

bobthened , 11 months ago

Don’t both sides this, this isn’t a both sides situation. I’m sure that there are some pro-choice people who do genuinely believe that life begins at conception and a foetus is equal to a living child but a) They are just categorically scientifically wrong, so it doesn’t matter what they think, and b) they are not the ones who are leading the charge for changing the laws, the ones in power who are pushing the narrative are doing it to distract their voting base from actual problems, to get the, riled up about a non-issue to trick them into voting against their own best interests.

Besides if they genuinely cared for the babies then there are many many other things they could get animated about that would actually make a positive impact on the lives of children like; more affordable/free healthcare, more paid maternity and paternity leave, better social programmes to help struggling parents etc. they’re just mad about it because it’s the issue of the year that right-wing media told them to be mad about – they haven’t actually thought about it much beyond that.

And even if they weren’t wrong about the science (which they are), it doesn’t matter because banning something like abortions doesn’t stop people wanting them and getting them, it just makes people do them in unsafe ways (ways that are much more likely to cause the death of the prospective mothers. If the religious right actually wanted to reduce the number of abortions then they should be pushing for thing like; better sex education, easier access to affordable/free contraception, the removal of “abstinence only” teaching practices etc.