Thread: ABORTION: Where do you stand?

Originally Posted by snoop

It's fine if you believe that it should be illegal past a certain date in the pregnancy, etc., but basically, as I interpret it, you believe that it should be legal (albeit with a few stipulations/rules). That's not really in the middle. Either you are for abortion or against it... or have no opinion at all (the aforementioned "middle").

So far looking at this thread, though, it seems a lot of the pro-choicers are ok with abortion way longer into the pregnancy than I would draw the line (I'd draw it at when the first signs of consciousness appear; I don't think there's a definite answer of when exactly that is, so at the moment I'd have the line at the end of the first trimester until we get a better idea of when that point is). I'd also support considering abortion after that point as murder, legally. I think (I could be wrong) a lot of pro-choicers would have a problem with that, so I dont generally refer to myself as pro-choice even though I am to some extent.

@buriedmonsters: Bringing religion into it only hurts your argument, not everyone is religious, and appealing to the concept of "souls" which they (and I) don't believe in, is not going to do anything to convince them. There actually ARE secular pro-life arguments (I used to be 100% pro-life even as an agnostic atheist), and using them would work better (even though it's still very very difficult to change anyone's mind on this matter).

Beliefwatch: Pro-life Atheists - Newsweek

This is an article talking mostly about Christopher Hitchens views on it. He's a somewhat well known atheist, and although he's not in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade, he considers himself to personally be pro-life. Not a lot of facts or anything here, it's mostly just opinions, but it's nice to see that there are some non-religious pro-life people out there too.

Atheist and Agnostic Pro-Life League Homepage

This is a site of the AAPL(Atheist and Agnostic Pro-Life League); they come at the issue of abortion from a secular humanist point of view.



The abortion debate - Carl Sagan

And this is that link again to an article by Carl Sagan and his wife. He's pro-choice up to a point, but provides very good (secular and logical) arguments that there needs to be a line drawn somewhere, and that there shouldn't be abortions after that point. He may be pro choice early on but it's going to be hard to find a very compelling secular argument for being pro-life from conception (aside from coming at it from a humanist perspective like the AAPL)

Originally Posted by COLnop

Beliefwatch: Pro-life Atheists - Newsweek

This is an article talking mostly about Christopher Hitchens views on it. He's a somewhat well known atheist, and although he's not in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade, he considers himself to personally be pro-life. Not a lot of facts or anything here, it's mostly just opinions, but it's nice to see that there are some non-religious pro-life people out there too.

Atheist and Agnostic Pro-Life League Homepage

This is a site of the AAPL(Atheist and Agnostic Pro-Life League); they come at the issue of abortion from a secular humanist point of view.



The abortion debate - Carl Sagan

And this is that link again to an article by Carl Sagan and his wife. He's pro-choice up to a point, but provides very good (secular and logical) arguments that there needs to be a line drawn somewhere, and that there shouldn't be abortions after that point. He may be pro choice early on but it's going to be hard to find a very compelling secular argument for being pro-life from conception (aside from coming at it from a humanist perspective like the AAPL)

Thank you! When I get a little free time, I am definitely going to read those.