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(THREAD 1/12) These are my thoughts on #abortion. Full disclosure: I am a middle-aged, middle-class, straight, white, man. You don’t need my permission to ignore me.
(2/12) One cannot simply draw a line, an arbitrary moment when a mass of cells goes from a collection of chemicals to a living being. And yet laws are written with precise words so that judges and juries can send people to jail.
(3/12) But at any given time, two people in the exact same situation will get different judgments. This is where those precise lines, again, do not reflect reality.
(4/12) If we stop lumping all women and all zygotes into one mass collection, we don’t have to see our precise words misrepresenting reality. Take every instance as its own, and who better to decide, in that situation, than the woman who is pregnant?
(5/12) No law will ever be able to address every nuance and peculiarity of every situation. There will always be exceptions, there will always be minute considerations. Laws are there to guide seekers of justice, not to be used as a cudgel to bludgeon an entire group of people.
(6/12) Let’s remember that science and law are not the same thing. They literally define some things differently. So, what is life? No one knows. And of all the people who claim to know, not all of them agree.
(7/12) That life is defined as starting at different times in different US states shows how absurd the idea even is.
(8/12) Its like if I’m late to a meeting, I can just set my watch back a few minutes, and now I’m on-time. Or, more analogous to this discussion: if Mary looks like she’s going to be on-time to our meeting, but I set my watch forward to say she’s late, and then fire her for it.
(9/12) If your main concern truly is preventing abortion, there are lots of ways to do so. Laws aren’t one of them. If we want to keep people from falling off a cliff, we don’t make falling illegal: we put up a fence.
(10/12) So instead of abortion laws, you should address justice for women. Look at the circumstances that lead to unwanted pregnancy, and adjudicate that. Provide better reproductive education. Provide better access to birth control. Reduce poverty.
(11/12) Fix our culture that makes women second-class citizens.
