Thread by @fairygodmomma

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh I’m going to make a thread on the subject, it will take me a little while to post, so please hold your thoughts till I complete it.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh I appreciate your willingness for civil discussion about measures we as members of a society & voters can take regarding abortion. We can discuss rights of women to end unplanned pregnancies & your empathy for “the unborn”.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh Ii understand you view abortions as death of “unborn children” and per your view, you want our legal system to extend equal constitutional rights to them under the law. Correct me if my interpretation is wrong. We agree to disagree on that.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh I advocate for women as fully entitled to self determination under the US constitution in all areas of their lives, particularly the right to assess & choose whether gestation of a pregnancy is harmful to her physically, emotionally and materially & to act accordingly.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh There is no parallel to the situational complexity & the biological aspects of pregnancy to draw analogies from, so making metaphorical arguments about this don’t serve any purpose but to further obsfucate.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh What you have is a female citizen of reproductive age who in all aspects of the constitution is equal to and entitled to exactly the same rights and the same liberty of self determination as every other.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh Courts have (rightly in my view) upheld those rights, although reserved for states (precisely the voting individuals of a state) the right to assert a “community” interest in her “unborn child” once it has reached *viability*. I’m not making any value judgement about this.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh So there are 2 scenarios under the law, non-viability and viability. As it stands, the people of any state can intervene in a woman’s personal liberty in favor of the “unborn child” once viability is determined. That’s typically based on 3rd trimester as I understand it.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh There are issues inherent to determination of viability that becomes subject to disagreement, such as medical determination outweighing the “trimester” methodology. I won’t go into those yet.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh With the hierarchy of authority being Federal, State, Locality, prior to *viability” the “unborn child” is 100% dependent upon the woman’s body for subsistence and regardless of how one feels about it, it is unsustainable outside her body.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh So whether or not one wants to admit a distinction between the ZEF and a 1-year old, it is *not* the same biologically. The existing grown born person has full authority over her body functions & the same liberty as every other born person to how her body is used.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh Being pregnant does not strip a woman of her constitutional rights. She is not mandated to forfeit them because she’s pregnant. The determination of the negative impact of gestating that pregnancy is solely hers and hers alone.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh Thus we say “her body, her choice”. There is no dispute about that constitutionally. What other born people think and feel about that is their business, but not relevant to her decision to act in her *own* best interests, not the “unborn child”.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh Now we will go back to the subject of “morality”. That is, the subjective views of other born people. Addressing the “well it’s legal but it’s not moral” argument. Obviously it is within the liberty of people at large to act “immorally” without consequence.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh (In fact, it seems these days acting immorally is the rule, not the exception in my view. But that’s a cynical philosophical conclusion I’ve drawn myself, and it doesn’t give me any authority over human nature other than to bitch about it. )

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh So here I am, personally I don’t like abortion. It is expensive, it is invasive, it takes a toll emotionally and physically on women that I deeply care about & empathize with. However, I don’t feel any sadness at all about the “unborn unborn.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh In my faith the unborn spirit in an instant returns to a loving Gods care. I basically have the exact same feelings as for “unborn” as I do toward those lost to miscarriage. It’s not tragic to me for the undeveloped baby except when it breaks the heart of the woman who lost it.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh I’ve concluded that most people on the “pro-life” side do not really comprehend what poverty really is. How a woman w child(ren) in a rural community, where jobs are scarce & typically pay below the poverty line is utterly disempowered by her circumstances. How desperate that is.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh Or in a city where average pay is still pitiably low for unskilled workers. How you settle for substandard child care or leave a 10 y//o to care for a 5 y/o. Food insecurity. Decent housing out of reach. Living every day not knowing how you’ll manage the next.

@tsmith_m @IntelligentCan2 @DrAshSaleh Until you spend your days among these single mothers and their struggles, it is an easy and cheap privilege to pontificate on their morality, their work ethic, to say “Well they ought to work harder”, “ought to behave better”, to judge them on what they have to do to subsist.