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How did pro-life vs abortion rights become a conservative vs liberal thing?

B

baydude

Senior member
I understand how many political beliefs can either be seen as more of a conservative or liberal view but I just never understood the pro-life vs abortion debate. Why is it that if you support women’s right to abort a baby, you’re left leaning and if you’re pro-life you’re right leaning?
 
baydude said:
I understand how many political beliefs can either be seen as more of a conservative or liberal view but I just never understood the pro-life vs abortion debate. Why is it that if you support women’s right to abort a baby, you’re left leaning and if you’re pro-life you’re right leaning?
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Two things.

First, conservative by definition means protecting or reverting to the old ways, so they were pre-disposed toward being anti-choice as a matter of course. However, conservatives really became linked to anti-choice in the '70s and '80s, when the Republicans started using it as a way to squeeze votes out of fundamentalist Christians. The Republican party may be diametrically opposed to Christian values in most every practical way (it hates the poor, but loves greed and war)... but dammit, no abortions!
 
Commodus said:
Two things.

First, conservative by definition means protecting or reverting to the old ways, so they were pre-disposed toward being anti-choice as a matter of course. However, conservatives really became linked to anti-choice in the '70s and '80s, when the Republicans started using it as a way to squeeze votes out of fundamentalist Christians. The Republican party may be diametrically opposed to Christian values in most every practical way (it hates the poor, but loves greed and war)... but dammit, no abortions!
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Or perhaps we actually thought that killing innocent human beings was wrong then as now.
 
baydude said:
I understand how many political beliefs can either be seen as more of a conservative or liberal view but I just never understood the pro-life vs abortion debate. Why is it that if you support women’s right to abort a baby, you’re left leaning and if you’re pro-life you’re right leaning?
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Reagan embraced the religious right, which fused the free market guys with the religious guys. There's nothing inherently conservative about wanting to ban abortion, assuming you interpret conservatism as small government. If anything it's a radically authoritarian position as it gives the government the right to tell people what they can and cannot do with their own bodies.

People in general aren't usually very ideologically consistent, they are tribal.
 
hal2kilo said:
Once again you interpret your version of the beginning of life.
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Quite the opposite. My version is consistent with the science of embryology, whereby a unique member of the species is created at conception. The view of abortion proponents is entirely arbitrary and borders on the mystical: until you're born you're not a human being - something inscrutable and amazing happens at the moment of birth apparently.
 
Atreus21 said:
Yes. Thou shalt not murder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou_shalt_not_kill
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There you go butchering that definition.
Atreus21 said:
Quite the opposite. My version is consistent with the science of embryology, whereby a unique member of the species is created at conception. The view of abortion proponents is entirely arbitrary and borders on the mystical: until you're born you're not a human being - something inscrutable and amazing happens at the moment of birth apparently.
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Pretty sure your own Bible references birth as the beginning of life.
 
fskimospy said:
Reagan embraced the religious right, which fused the free market guys with the religious guys. There's nothing inherently conservative about wanting to ban abortion, assuming you interpret conservatism as small government. If anything it's a radically authoritarian position as it gives the government the right to tell people what they can and cannot do with their own bodies.

People in general aren't usually very ideologically consistent, they are tribal.
Click to expand...

I suppose there's nothing inherently conservative about banning murder either, since it involves government coercion to preempt or punish it.

Furthermore the government tells us, and has told us, what to do with our bodies on plenty of occasions. The draft, quarantine laws, even jury duty. We go to jail for non-compliance.
 
Atreus21 said:
Quite the opposite. My version is consistent with the science of embryology, whereby a unique member of the species is created at conception. The view of abortion proponents is entirely arbitrary and borders on the mystical: until you're born you're not a human being - something inscrutable and amazing happens at the moment of birth apparently.
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Technically they are a parasite until at least 24 weeks. They are becoming a human, but aren't one yet.
 
Abortion opposition is, and always has been tied directly to the control of women.

Throughout history, abortion has never been an issue (even in the bible where a lost pregnancy was equated as lost property while the life of the mother was equated to murder) until talk of women's suffrage started in the 1800s.

Followers have been duped by thinking it has anything to do with human life. Why? Because it seems to be the ONLY human life or rights they seem to support.

Abortion is a propaganda tool.
 
A few reasons:
- One of the founding core principles of liberalism, as put forth by Locke way back when, is that of self-ownership of one's person/body.
- In addition to the above, abortion is about women's rights to self-ownership of their persons, and conservatives are generally opposed to women's rights.
- Finally, social conservatives are primarily sexual authoritarians. So if other people (especially women) are having sex that they disapprove of, then those people MUST be punished for it.
The most important thing to know about the abortion issue is that "pro-lifers" do not give a rats ass about the babies. Don't ever be fooled by that bullshit. They approve of the mass murdering of innocent children on an almost daily basis as they cheer on the government's war machine. The only thing they care about with regards to this issue is controlling other peoples' sexual activity. Which is why "pro-lifers" are almost always anti-birth control and anti-LGBT as well.
 
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Atreus21 said:
Or perhaps we actually thought that killing innocent human beings was wrong then as now.
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It's a catchy straw man, I know, but no effort of the "pro-life" agenda is ever going to successful is preventing the killing of any innocent human beings.
 
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