Abortion rights activists were unhappy with the president’s comments, as millions of people are being denied access to abortion care in nearly half the country.
I don’t really have a problem with the president saying “I don’t personally like abortion, but I still stand by a woman’s right to choose”. I’m a staunch atheist and I would much rather work with that style of Christian than the ones who want to force others to follow their own insane rules.
This is actually the type of president we should want. As long as they can do that in all aspects, that is.
It’s not a huge deal but why preface it though? All you have to say is “Roe vs Wade was the correct decision and a woman has the right to choose”
I’m “big on abortion” because it’s a human right and I like human rights. And it doesn’t really matter if a cis man is “big on abortion” because these laws will never affect him and his body. He’s just trying to appeal to Christians because Christians control so much of this country 🤮
And it doesn’t really matter if a cis man is “big on abortion” because these laws will never affect him and his body.
I’m pro-choice but I’ve heard this and many similar things said and it’s such a ridiculous thing to say.
“It doesn’t really matter what you think about inhumane treatment for XYZ medical condition because you’re not a doctor and you don’t have that condition”
“It doesn’t matter what you think about banning this important subset of knowledge in K-12 education because you’ve already aged out”
Believe it or not, things can affect you even if they’re not directly happening to you. People don’t exist in a vacuum.
Disregarding someone’s opinion has never once changed someone’s opinion.
“Big on abortion” in this situation means “other women can have abortions but I wouldn’t choose to”
But he will never be pregnant and never need an abortion, so of course he will never have to choose to have an abortion. The only people whose opinion matters when someone needs an abortion is the pregnant person and their doctor. Plenty of people who were “not big on abortion” ended up getting an abortion when it affected them.
You are allowed to have an opinion sure, but your opinion is irrelevant when it comes down to the decision because it’s a healthcare decision. Do you want to have to take every other person’s opinion into account whenever you make a medical decision? I highly doubt you would make the same argument if this applied to your medical decisions.
What if I want to take a medical treatment that doctors and I agree will save my life if you personally think it’s inhumane? I should just fuck off and not get a choice despite what doctors and I think are in my best interest? I’m on birth control for medical issues and plenty of people think it has too many side effects to be legal, why should they get to decide because they had a bad experience when it has worked for me?
What if I don’t have a kid in your school, but show up to a school board meeting with all my friends to say teaching kids math is inhumane and it needs to be removed from the curriculum? People are doing that RIGHT NOW near me, mandating the removal of pride flags and banning the use of kids preferred pronouns. Do they have kids in the school district? No. It’s a bunch of people from a mega church near by being told to do this by their pastor. But according to you, they should be respected.
Comparing it to inhumane medical treatments highlight your true feelings on the subject.
You can’t get elected by being honest, really. The optimal president is one who appeals to the most common middle ground with as many people as possible (single issue voters notwithstanding). He’s hoping to acknowledge moderate Christians who, having perfectly valid opinions on abortion, disagreed with overturning major Supreme Court decisions on culture war activists. Moderates are the only people who you can move on the ballot, sadly.
I’m not sure where you live but I’m in the bible belt and almost every single Christian I’ve heard speak about the issue (people are very vocal about religion here) has said that abortion is murder and they do not approve of women having the ability to choose to end a life for any reason.
As a Christian, I have to say that I don’t see any medically unnecessary situation where abortion isn’t murder. You are ending the life of another human being for your own convenience.
That said, I realize that as a community we can’t get rid of abortion. It’s a very complex problem with no good single solution. Not only is it necessary that people have painless access for when it is unfortunately necessary, but it’s also not correct for us as Christians to force our convictions on others. All we can do is to try our best to make situations where abortions are desired (but not needed) as infrequent as possible. That means good prenatal care, good familial and financial education, proper sex education (and I mean real sex education, not just “don’t have sex” - you can’t stop humans from doing human things), etc.
I kind of hate it.
The only understandable reason to oppose abortion is if you think it’s murder. I hate that stance, but I understand it
If you don’t think it’s murder, why have a problem with it? If you do think it’s murder, how couldn’t you actively oppose it!?
Like, if Biden thinks it’s murder, he can’t just say “but it’s still a woman’s choice”. Murder isn’t a right. If it’s murder then you have to fight it with everything you have, or you’re complicit.
It’s a contradictory stance.
I feel like this is the best response we could get from someone who’s got a more right wing personal stance on abortion
“I don’t really like the idea of it, personally, due to my beliefs, but you know it’s still absolutely none of my business what other people do with their bodies and I support their right to choose. My opinion doesn’t dictate their freedom.”
It a bit surprising given that he mentioned being catholic, too - the catholic church has generally taken a pretty firm stance on abortion.
That said, I grew up in the UCC, and it resonates perfectly with the way that they emphasized tolerance. If somebody wants to do something that you don’t like, that’s absolutely fine as long as they don’t force you to participate - in this case, the tolerant, “christian” take on abortion should be “I don’t want one, but if you do, go for it.”
I think this is a pretty good stance? Seems to read like, “While I’m not a big fan of abortion, it’s not mine or the government’s decision to decide on this matter.”
Ironically most of the Constitutional Law experts will argue that Roe v Wade got the reasoning wrong, even though the decision and the legal effects were right. Because Roe depends on a Constitutional right to privacy, and it’s pretty much the only Supreme Court ruling to claim the Constitution grants a right to privacy. Meanwhile you could fill a book with the number of SCOTUS decisions that rely on denying the Constitution has any mention of a right to privacy.
It really should have hinged on the right to bodily autonomy and the lack of legal personhood of an embryo. Religious definitions of personhood is irrelevant there are as many beliefs about it as there are religious sects. Choosing one religious definition to dictate the legality of abortion is a religious infringement on the beliefs of all other with different beliefs, faith-based or otherwise.
I mean, no one ever is “big” on abortion. It’s a traumatic procedure done for many reasons, personal or medical. Don’t want one, don’t get one. I hate it that it’s still somewhat controversial, even where I live, when the laws were passed almost 50 years ago.
I’m very much in favor of safe effective medical procedures of all sorts. Acting as if abortion is something bad that must be tolerated is not helpful.
But it is bad in the literal sense of the word. It’s difficult emotionally and physically, it’s often not a wanted procedure, and in some situations it’s traumatic for families who actually did want the child, but couldn’t for one reason or another.
Still, as uncomfortable as it may be, we shouldn’t get in the way of individuals and their healthcare. We need to make the process as painless as possible because it does really suck for a lot of people.
