Abortion and Women's Rights

[DeistPaladin]

Let's look at it from the opposite side. Suppose there's a country in which all abortion is illegal. Some people claim they support abortion on demand, yet are trying to push through a law allowing abortion in cases of rape or the mother's life in danger. Does this indicate that they don't really support abortion on demand? I don't think so. I think they're being practical and trying to get what they can for the moment, even though they don't recognize it as ideal.

Such political dilemmas do happen on the left. Recently a speaker who was an advocate for LGBT rights spoke on the issue of whether or not to push for transgender rights along with gay and bisexual rights. Dropping transgenders makes the passage of gay rights legislation easier but it effectively throws transgenders under the bus, in a place where they'll never crawl of of, at least for the foreseeable. The theory is that they are such a minority that if they are dropped, no one will take up advocacy for them later, at least not for the foreseeable future.

The decision was made to push for the whole deal. All and immediate, no compromises. It's really the only moral course of action if you really do believe in the cause.

This is not to say that I don't see the point of "practicality". I'm just saying that to embrace that course of action means that you have to be comfortable with "the ends justify the means", at least on some extreme occasions. If you do get comfortable, you must abandon an pretense in advocating for absolute morals in order to be consistent.