Ep 15 – Responding to “You’re Not Pro-Life, You’re Pro-Birth” and an Analysis of Hillary Clinton on Abortion

Hillary
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gestures as she addresses a VIP reception for the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies in Washington, United States, May 4, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Bourg

Hey everyone! Thanks for joining me on the 15th episode of the Fetal Position. As always, the show notes can be found at TheFetalPosition.com/15. In this episode, we discuss the possible responses to the claim that “You’re not pro-life, you’re just pro-birth,” often thrown at pro-lifers from our critics. We also analyze Hillary Clinton’s position on abortion and conclude that she is unsurprisingly terrible on this issue.

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To listen to this episode in a new window, click on the following link: Responding to “You’re Not Pro-Life, You’re Pro-Birth” and an Analysis of Hillary Clinton on Abortion.

Even though this is Episode 15, it is not an “After Birth” episode (where I discuss non-abortion related issues). This is a continuation of a series on the presidential candidates and their positions on abortion.

Quick Links:
Trump says he won’t change the laws on abortion
Jailing whistleblowers who expose planned parenthood in california
Evil Hillary Clinton Laugh Music Video


Too Long Didn’t Listen?
TLDL:

Responding to “You’re Not Pro-Life, You’re Just Pro-Birth!”

  • Twitter conversation with Warren suggesting that being pro-life means we have to be involved in things other than abortion.
  • Facebook conversation with Jory Micah and some of her friends/followers suggesting that I am personally pro-birth, not pro-life. My comments are underneath Sydney’s comment (the fifth one from the top)
  • These people are saying “if you disagree with my political opinions (on government-mandated paid maternity leave, the gender ‘pay gap’, government programs for the poor, etc), then your position on abortion is negated.
  • First off, this is the genetic fallacy.
  • The reason I am pro-life has nothing to do with these positions. I am pro-life because abortion takes the life of a defenseless human being and I think that is morally wrong, in most cases.
  • And lastly, if I disagree with you on how to solve societal issues (like poverty, hunger, adoption, etc), that does not suddenly mean I am ignoring those social issues. It simply means we disagree on the solutions.
    • Progressives, Conservatives, and Libertarians all have different ways they think these issues can be solved. Simple disagreement about the role of government does not entail a lack of interest on the part of your interlocutor
    • It’s interesting to note that a conservative could point to the reasons why he believes X, Y, & Z and use the exact same argument used by a progressive on this topic. And that’s because the debate isn’t about abortion, it is about what is the best way to solve these social issues.
  • The key here is to do our best to understand our political opponent’s position, not to use that disagreement as a reason to dismiss their position on other topics.

Bonus!
Let’s keep abortion legal so that women don’t die from back-alley abortions.
For this reason, abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.

  • This is how I hear this argument: People should be allowed to kill other people legally because it would be unsafe for them to kill people illegally. When put that way, it seems obvious as to why that is a problem, yes? That’s because killing people is wrong.
  • “We should make terrorism safe, legal, and rare because if it was illegal, people might die from back-alley bomb-making!”
  • The reason terrorism should be illegal is because when executed correctly, terrorism kills people. The reason abortion should be illegal is because when an abortion is executed correctly, abortion also kills people. Therefore, suggesting that people should be able to safely kill people is a profoundly strange concept.
  • and no.
    I am not saying that women who get abortions are terrorists.

Analyzing Hillary Clinton and Her Position on Abortion

  • Here is the interview she did on The View
  • Here is a totally non-exhaustive list of the reasons I dislike Hillary Clinton:
    • She flip-flopped on same sex marriage and then denied that she ever did such a thing
    • She is a progressive while talking to progressives and she is a moderate when talking to moderates
    • She straight-up lied about those emails
    • She has lied about her approach to Wall Street and her hatred of investment banks (which, interestingly enough, are her top campaign contributors)
    • She jumps all over the place on universal health care
    • She lied about being under sniper fire in Bosnia, and has used that as a way to tout her foreign experience. She greeted a small girl on the tarmac and took a photo with a group of 7th graders.
    • She was originally pro-NAFTA (she helped it get passed) and is now saying that she was a critic from the beginning.
  • In the interview on The View, Clinton says that the unborn does not have constitutional rights.
    • This isn’t necessarily true. The Constitution does not mention the unborn. She doesn’t go into what she meant by that, but my best charitable guess is twofold:
      • The Constitution addresses “persons,” and unborn children are not “persons”
      • She is using Roe v Wade (a supreme court decision) to say that the Constitution doesn’t give the unborn any rights. I’m not anything close to constitutional scholar, but it seems rather obvious that supreme court case decisions are very different than having something be constitutionally protected.
        • We’ll get into Roe v. Wade in a later episode
  • Hillary says that abortion is a difficult decision, and I have to wonder why abortion is a “difficult decision.” I had my tooth taken out, and that wasn’t something I’d describe as “difficult.” I had it taken out much sooner than I had thought, so it sorta surprised me, but I would never describe the decision to have my tooth removed as “difficult.”
    • I understand, as a pro-lifer, why abortion is a difficult decision. And that’s because abortion kills a defenseless human being. If the life of the mother is in danger, it becomes something like a moral dilemma (although I’d rather save 1 than let 2 die).
  • Hillary Clinton also wants to remove the Hyde Amendment, which would force taxpayers to pay for abortions via their taxes.

Summary of Clinton on Abortion

Hillary believes that unborn persons have no constitutional rights.
She wants to repeal the Hyde Amendment and force taxpayers to pay for abortion.
This combination of positions makes Clinton a very dangerous person when it comes to advancing human rights regarding abortion. If we want to continually promote the idea that all human beings are valuable from womb to tomb, and that they ought to have their right to life protected, then Hillary Clinton seems like the opposite choice.


Thanks for listening everyone!
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Photo via Reuters

Elijah Thompson
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