Does More Abortion Mean Less Crime?
There are two problems to address with this argument: A moral one, and an empirical one. The moral problem is obvious. It is wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings to benefit others.
December 2019
November 2019
Potential Persons or Potential Problems?
Does recognizing such an obligation in the context of pregnancy involve treating women as incubators or ‘fetal containers’? Surely not: If I am a pregnant woman, it is no more treating me as an incubator to expect me to respect my baby’s body and allow it to remain within my own than it is treating the baby’s father as a cradle to expect him to avoid violent, reckless or negligent treatment of the baby after birth. At least until such time as other carers can take over, it is reasonable to expect those supporting a child to continue to do so, and in any case, to avoid deliberate harm and/or harmful bodily incursions on the child.
September 2019
Forcing our Religion?
Transcript AJ+, Al Jazeera’s flashy face aimed at youth, recently produced a podcast episode of NewsBroke with Francesca Fiorentini making the claim, among others, that American evangelical Christians are attempting to force their religion on the country violating the establishment of religion clause of the First Amendment and the spirit of Jefferson’s desire for a [...]
August 2019
Acorns and Embryos
TRANSCRIPT Occasionally someone confronts me after a talk with this comment, “The embryo and fetus are not human beings anymore than an acorn is an oak tree.” I even recently saw a form of this claim while studying academic pro-choice authors. The statement often accompanies a stunned disbelief that this basic fact eludes pro-life advocates. [...]
July 2019
Overpopulation
TRANSCRIPT During a recent Q&A, a young woman asked me, “How do you respond to the argument that the world already faces an overpopulation problem? If abortion is made illegal won’t it only get worse?” I actually hear this question a lot. At one particular high school I stayed after my presentation for two days [...]