Is Abortion an Absolute Right?

For John, BLUF:  Author carla Seaquist doesn't seem to thinkk abortion is an absolute right and she counsels going forward with an eye toward other rights.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Dear Feminists:  On Abortion, Shall We Finally Embrace the Golden Mean?

From Medium, by Writer Carla Seaquist, 31 May 2022.

Here is the lede plus three:

Abortion is every woman’s concern and every feminist’s issue.  We feminists, the advocates of the species, array ourselves along a spectrum on the issue of abortion — over viability of the fetus, over religious injunction, over access to the procedure, over restrictions to access.  It is perhaps the latter — unrestricted versus restricted access — that causes the most argument among our number.

A defining moment for me came in the mid-1990s.  I was in New York on business and was to meet a friend there for coffee during my break (from rehearsal for a play of mine).  When I called to arrange where to meet, my friend informed me of a scheduling conflict:  As a board member of an abortion rights group, she had committed to a march that would take place during our coffee-time.  I’d read of the upcoming march, a major event involving feminists from across the country. “You can come march with us and we can talk,” she said.  I demurred:  “I don’t think so, but thanks.”  What ensued got prickly, as it came out her advocacy of abortion was stronger than mine.

Finally, in exasperation, my friend asked:  “What kind of feminist are you?”  And out of my mouth came my position on abortion, finally:  “One who believes in limits, in restrictions.”

By then, in the 20-some years since the 1973 Supreme Court’s historic ruling in Roe v. Wade granting the right to abortion, when the ruling was operationalized — women getting abortions, feminists touting women’s progress with this signal right — I became increasingly unsettled by how seldom I heard reference to, or concern expressed for, that which was aborted: the fetus.  Too often I heard relief expressed that abortion was a fix for a “wild weekend of unprotected sex.”  Also unsettling was what I took to be specious rationales about when life begins, with the more extremist voices arguing for later and later in the term, with fewer and fewer restrictions, including into the third trimester.  But, but, but:  Left to its own, the fetus will grow, I felt; it is a living thing.  “Safe, legal, and rare” seemed a sound dictum to me, but the “rare” part was losing ground.

What are the limits to abortion?  The receond governor of Virginia, a pediatric neurologist, Dr Ralph Northam, said that we birth the child and set it aside and consult with the Mother as to if the child should live.  On the other hand, we have Professor Peteer Singer, who thinks that abortion is ethical up to two years post-oartum.  I think I am with Ms Seaquist in thinking the first trimester is a time of confusion and an area where action might be reasonabe.♠  Beyond the first trimester there should be a lot more clarity, and lesss action.  Are Mothers and Schools not teaching young women to recognize the signs in their own bodies?

Ms Seaquist supports a reformed strategy, once that sounds more responsible:

One that resets its parameters: away from the extreme of unrestricted abortion through the third trimester — and back to the more defensible parameter of abortion restricted to the first.  In other words, the Golden Mean, not the extreme.

. Here is the style being advocated bt Ms Seaquist:

In my early career in civil rights, in the 1970s and ’80s, when I organized the women’s caucus of a major think-tank (Brookings Institution) and served as an equal opportunity officer for a major American city (San Diego), I found that, for a policy to stick, not trigger reactionary resistance, the Golden Mean worked — moderation in goals (if you keep meeting your goals, over time you make real headway), moderation in implementation (making yourself helpful in reaching those goals), moderation in style (don’t scare people).  I also saw how extremes, expressed as cultural trend (dressing sexy), could hurt “my” women.  “Nothing in excess,” as the ancients put it.  This isn’t about panache (“living big”), but policy: bringing the masses over to our side.

I am a pro-life kind of person, but we live in a pluralisti society.  Is there some medium point at which we can meet?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Not that I am advoacting abortion at this point.  I am recognizing that for many fellow Americans it seems a reasonable and legal option.