Abortion Rights: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Abortion Rights: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
159 comments
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The lack of humanity in Republican politicians is so frustrating.
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"Frustrating" doesn't feel like a strong enough word. Enraging, maybe. Lord knows we need more anger at them in this country than the quiet shrugging many people seem to have adopted.
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inhuman
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Might need to catch up with John Oliver's segments after a long while.
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Locking this thread because people are behaving like jerks.
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Leftists aren't pro choice, but pro abortion. Most people don't want abortions up to 9 months. See the stats here under "public opinion".
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_the_United_States
I'm pro choice. You, Mr. Killing-viable-baby-at-9-months, are just bat shit crazy.
Stop lying to people and telling them you're pro choice when you're pro abortion.
EDIT: I love the responses that have no arguments and are all ad-hominem. Cry more! I love watching you boil from the inside!
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Lol this is a pretty severe case of Fox News brain rot.
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ROFL. I wold love to call you the “R” word right now, but that’s not the politically correct term to use nowadays. So I’ve begun to instead- call people who I otherwise would consider to be r*******d “conservatives” instead.
So you sir…. Are a HUGE conservative.
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Let me guess, he doesn't think its murder?
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Yes, that's correct. Because he's not an idiot.
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Oh, here comes the clown who thinks fertilized eggs are babies!
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Yeah, I don’t see how they can see it so black and white if they don’t consider a firtilized egg to be a full living human.
I think anything else would necessitate conceding that it’s a complicated issue, with lots of grey area, which I don’t think any forced-birther I’ve talked to has conceded.
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Don't kill the fertilized eggs! Unless the brown person carrying them doesn't believe the way you want them to believe. Then go nuts.
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They definitely are beyond a "fertilized egg" multiple months into a pregnancy. And yes, they are humans, just at the early stage. You think a baby magically becomes human when it leaves the womb?
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Let me guess, you didn't watch the clip where he explains it's a complex issue that should be viewed from all angles and not just life and death. If you're so worried about death then consider the women who's lives are in danger because they have to endure a non viable pregnancy to term because a bunch of politicians have no concept of medical care.
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Is your belief that life begins at conception religiously founded?
The Bible prescribes an abortion (which would be murdering an innocent bystander, if the fetus was a person) as the punishment for adultery (Numbers 5).
Oddly, before 1980, there was no majority Christian consensus on when life began. When Roe v Wade dropped, the largest evangelical denomination called it, "a distinctly Catholic issue".
For the vast majority of Christian history it was generally held that life began at the quickening, the first time the mother felt the baby kick. This was considered the moment of ensoulment, literally when the soul entered the body.
Unfortunately, due to the antisemitic influence of Rome hijacking Christianity, that's a very Greek and neo-platonic view of when life began.
In Hebrew, spirit (ruach) means wind; the invisible force that brings life, the breath of God. Soul (naphesh) just means throat, it is the channel by which we breath in the life of God. So as many ancient and modern Jews believe, as would the early christians, life begins at first breath.
Of course, we're not bound to ancient views, which is why Roe v Wade determined viability outside the womb would be the standard point of protection, which is makes a lot of sense.
You are free to believe that life begins at conception. This is an issue people have discussed and debated for as long as we've been alive.
You can't believe that your view is explicitly taught by the Bible or is even the view of the majority of Christians for most of history.
The evangelical view of life beginning at conception began in the late 70's as a political wedge issue that tested incredibly well with audiences so people like Jerry Falwell began beating the drum in order to build political clout.
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If there was a chick inside there, it certainly would be a chicken, no?
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people should be allowed to murder whatever is growing inside them.
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This is one of those interesting things. If we accept OP's premise for the sake of argument... then what does that really change? Society accepts that people can be lawfully killed on purpose given the "right" circumstances (e.g.: criminal punishment, war combat, equivocal self-defense). We generally don't like it, but we do fundamentally accept that human life is on the negotiating table when justified.
That's what irks me about the murder label. We already willfully choose to end human lives, irrevocably destroying a vast collection of lived experiences and social connections in the process. What is destroyed when an unborn child dies? A life which knows nobody, understands nothing, and thinks/feels at best at a level no more complex than animals which we routinely slaughter without a second thought. One might argue that the life itself contains some unknowable potential for these things, but that theoretical future potential comes at the price of the mother's current potential and freedoms.
The way I see it, the position is inherently precious. It fears the label of murder without caring to consider why the label exists. A philosophy so myopically focused on keeping one's own moral hands clean that the term "second order consequence" may as well be written in hieroglyphics.
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Self defense is never murder.
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Agreed.
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A bunch of cells in rapid development with the potential to become a human being. Murder is a strong term, but in a broad sense I don't think your insinuation is wrong per se.
This might be getting a bit controversial, but for the sake of discussion:
The important thing here is, do you mind if that potential for life is taken away. In this case we place priority on the human being that eventually has to dedicate her life to that potential. Or is that new potential more important than that already existing, conscious human being (especially when there are physical / mental problems involved)?
It comes down to why we live, and why must we live? Personally I believe trying to avoid (potential of) suffering is a more reasonable concept.
If one gives life to a baby, you give it a potential for suffering which it otherwise does not. I'd say the ways one can suffer is of a greater weight than the ways one can be happy. So if you go the route of creating life, you better be damn confident that you are in a good position to do that.
In that philosophy 'murdering' a potential with a large chance of creating more suffering for the collective is not that bad. One might view this differently when the being is conscious and might actively not want to die, as we bring the complexity of individual human choice to the table and what worth that has; but I think we can agree that is not applicable on the unborn potential human being discussed in this topic.
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"We have to protect all life!" he said and throws another piece of former cow on the barbecue.
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159 comments
"The child cannot live, it is a grave danger to your health and will never be able to survive more than an hour once you've destroyed your body carrying it to term and bringing it into this world"
"So... we need to abort the pregnancy?!
!What? Nooo, you are far to alive for that. We need to let you suffer for a while, so you are close to death enough. Then, we will be able to abort the pregnancy. No worries, you might die but it's not guaranteed and it will only leave you and your partner scarred for life since you didn't only loose your child, you suffered immensely as well"
"but... why do you make me go through this?"
"Because a bunch of bitter, balding white republican gnomes decided that this was 'a safe place for little babies'"
Hey now...I'm bitter and balding, and I marched my ass into my polling station in Ohio this morning to vote yes on issue 1. And I'll be voting this way when I'm as old, wrinkly, and bald as any of those fuckers.
Age doesn't make monsters. Monsters just get older.
The older and balder I get (since I can't get any whiter), the further left I shift.
Asshole right wing nuts have been working together for the past 40+ years to gain power, overturn Roe v Wade, and implement a Christofacist state. They're closer than ever.
And you just WON!!! I love you, thank you so so much. My sister suffered an incomplete miscarriage in Ohio a decade ago. A ban on abortion could have killed her. You just saved my sister's life. I just want you to know about the real people you're actually helping and please go out there and keep being awesome.