[lbo-talk] abortion poll

[John Thornton]

W. Kiernan wrote:
> joanna wrote:
>  >
>  > It's a little more complicated than that. If a
>  > woman who is eight months pregnant decides she
>  > wants to have an abortion, that's a problem.
>
> I don't agree with John Thornton here.  Legally there's lots of 
> precedent about extreme cases where the default position of "leave the 
> citizen be" is overridden by necessity.  Despite habeas corpus, an 
> obviously insane person, e.g. someone acting out crazy shit because she 
> Hears Voices, can be locked up under the Baker Act.  When one is clearly 
> dangerously deranged, not just the right to abortion but also more 
> unargued rights such as to drive a car, walk down the street, handle 
> razor-sharp knives, etc., are customarily revoked.
>
> Anyway, does any such woman actually exist or are you just conducting a 
> limit-case thought-experiment?  If the second, what's the relevance to a 
> discussion about laws?  Laws don't deal with events which take place 
> only in someone's imagination, but with events that really happen.
>
> Some women have abortions during the third trimester, but in real life, 
> no one does this for convenience, much less regalement; that's a 
> anti-abortionist pitchman's fantasy, without referent in reality.   
>
> Yours WDK - WKiernan at ij.net

I pretty much made the same comment concerning the actual existence of 
such a person. I was not the one who suggested this as an example.

As far as "really crazy" people, what harm is done by granting their 
desire for an abortion?
Do you think we should deny abortions to the mentally ill?
How can you justify this position? How does society gain anything by 
denying abortions to the mentally ill?
We limit their actions that may harm other citizens but they do no harm 
to others with a desire for a late term abortion.
As I stated earlier, it is none of my damn business why she wants an 
abortion unless I wish to label some desires legitimate and others not so.

John Thornton