[lbo-talk] Peggy Noonan waxes weird

Shane Mage shmage at pipeline.com
Sat Nov 1 13:18:22 PDT 2008


On Nov 1, 2008, at 2:33 PM, John Thornton wrote:


> martin wrote:
>> Bill Clinton famously said, over and over, that abortion should be
>> "safe, legal and rare." The "rare" mattered. It set a tone, as
>> presidents do, and made an important concession: You only want a
>> medical practice to be rare when it isn't good."
>> Should be 'You only want a medical procedure to be rare when it
>> isn't necessary' . Abortion is obviously necessary until socialism
>> provides support for mothers.
>>
> Bill got two out of three correct.
> Abortion should be safe, legal, and on demand; frequency is
> completely a personal issue and not one of concern to society at
> large. Abortion will be just as necessary under socialism only then
> it should be free upon demand.

No, I've never met or heard of a woman for whom abortion was anything but (even in the best case) an undesired outcome of coition. Clinton was right but "rare" is overly euphemistic. I would have had him say "Abortion should be safe and legal, and every pregnancy should be voluntary." To achieve that we need universal sex education, universal access to effective birth control, and social encouragement of homosexuality. Stupid American attitudes on sex ensure that the US would continue to led the world in abortions even were Roe v. Wade to be undone.

Shane Mage


> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos



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