The World’s Largest Coalition of Nontheists and Nontheist Communities!

Why are so many atheists pro-abortion-rights?

I'll comprimise. I don't like the term entirely, but it'll do. Just like there are pro-gun-rights and pro-gambling-rights (and there used to be pro-slavery-rights).

Is it just for the sake of disagreeing with the religious? Is it because they see being anti-abortion-rights as being a strictly religious viewpoint? Are anti-abortion-rights atheists worried about fitting in? Is it just a coincidence?

Tags: abortion

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tarquin St John Sh'gn'sty on April 16, 2010 at 3:39am

"Obviously if it was rape he has no voice, but if they're in a normal relationship how much say do you think a man has in whether the fetus his partner carries lives? "

Are you addressing me? If so,I thought I made my position clear. viz;abortion is a medical decision between doctor and patient.

As far as I'm aware,in Australia, no third party has any legal rights in the decision to have or not have an abortion*.Recognition of any moral rights need to be agreed between the couple before the pregnancy. Tough luck if the pregnancy is unplanned.Of course the woman always has the legal right to change her mind.

*I assume common exceptions due to mental competency apply.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Renee Gura on April 16, 2010 at 2:55pm

The father should not have any OFFICIAL say in whether or not a woman chooses to continue a pregnancy.

If your adult child one day comes home and starts beating the crapola out of you, should you have to wait until that child's biological father consents before you defend yourself?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on April 16, 2010 at 3:34pm

It is a situation which doesn't have a compromise. It's reasonable for couples to talk it over, but ultimately if they still disagree, only one person has a say, and that person should be the one who is carrying it.

The best thing to do is talk it over before sex, so that if pregnancy does happen you don't suddenly discover one of you wants an abortion and the other is completely opposed.(But of course, do you think all the bar flies having one night stands will ever do that?)

However, since the woman has the choice in whether she wants to keep the baby, maybe the man should have a choice in paying child support.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jezzy on April 29, 2010 at 1:29pm

I was curious how people felt. It's one of those things that's never really brought up.

It's always just assumed that the man bumped and left (which to be fair isn't unlikely). Naturally it's fair to think the decision is up to the woman, who carries the child and will more likely care for it, and of course I wasn't saying that a man can or should override an abortion. It's just another factor.

Say the couple is married, the man wants kids, the woman doesn't and aborts. You can't change either opinion but the woman will always win that one. Which I'm not saying is wrong or needs to be changed, but it is a sad part of it. I mean it's not a man's fault that he's not the one carrying the baby, theoretically he could be scarred by the loss.

I guess the main part that drives me insane is how pregnancy always has to be the woman's problem. It's partially a social thing but mostly a biological thing. Why can't we all reproduce like worms, or sponges or something? Intelligent beings with 2 sexes seems counter-intuitive.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Renee Gura on April 16, 2010 at 2:53pm

I have a couple of comments:

//taking a life is horrid no matter when, how, or what circumstances.//

That is quite a statement. Do you support self-defense laws? Do you support the individual's right to NOT consent to any use of their body, and once explicit non-consent is present, do you support that person's right to separate from that which is using their body?

Very clearly, there are circumstances in which taking a life is both morally and legally acceptable/permissible.

While, I would support your right to form your own opinions regarding when you would choose to defend against use of your body, I do not support those opinions being forced onto others. Your ideas surrounding this idea (that to kill is wrong) should absolutely help you make your own decisions if placed in the position of having to defend yourself. However, your moral ideologies are only relevant for yourself. They have no bearing on whether or not another person is *required* to make the same decisions as you would make.

// there needs to be an honest debate as to when "life" begins//

Why? When "life" begins is actually rather irrelevant. You are a life. As a life, do you have the right to use another person's body against their explicit non-consent?

//but either way i think terminating viable life simply out of preference is horrid.//

All self-defense falls into this category. Should we eliminate all self-defense? OR, should we recognize that an individuals right to their body (ie. their right to consent or not consent to the use of their body) should be held above another's right to just about anything?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ally on April 29, 2010 at 12:31pm

Dusty! HERE! HERE!
THANK YOU!
and TARQUIN - Hell YEAHS!
I'm just going to quote Tarquin b/c he sums up my opinion on the matter PERFECTLY!
"I believe abortion is a purely medical issue between doctor and patient..The decision rests belong to the woman ALONE. It should not even be a legal or political issue. The opposing arguments are based on religious doctrine and personal moral views, not science."

This is a small example of why I love A/N.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Carrot Hare on April 29, 2010 at 2:42pm

Holy crap everything about anti-abortionists piss me off.
It's not just cause it's a concept brought on by religious assholes, but because it takes away one our most important civil rights through guilt. If life begins at conception then when does it end? After our body has decomposed? It's not like we have conciousness when we haven't even grown all our limbs yet, and even if we do no one remembers that anyway. If I found out my mom had wanted to abort me I would've yelled at her about not having done it. I like being alive, don't get me wrong but she would've had a much better life if she hadn't had kids at 19, and whatever kids she might have had later probably would've had a better life.
In my opinion, people need to have more abortions.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Simon JM on August 14, 2010 at 1:20am

Hey CH do you know Thompson's Violinist Anaology by chance?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Zachary J. Clark on April 29, 2010 at 9:21pm

I know I am for abortion rights because:
1. We have over 7 billion people in the world. The more people we have the more deforstation will have to take place. Then there will be more trash, and more pollution then there was before. In my opinion we need less people, and more enviromently aware people.
2. I believe any couple/women should be allowed to decide their/her future. If the decesion rests with what to do with a fetus then they should be allowed to do whatever they want.
If they want to keep it let them. If they want to give it up for adoption, let them. If they want to abort it, let them.