Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Huckabee On Abortion

cross posted at To God, Or Not To God?

The argument that Mike Huckabee makes in the following interview is--I think--the best way to argue the pro-life position. He doesn't make the error that so many Pro-lifers make of wedding their opposition to abortion to their stance on gay marriage or their religion. I suppose it would be better for the pro-life movement to have an absolute secularist like Christopher Hitchens (who is himself pro-life) make the case the way Huckabee does here in the first clip, but a start is a start.

The argument against abortion on religious grounds is a non-starter for the non-religious. It turns it into another faith issue, which cannot be empirically defended, and requires too many other beliefs to be assumed first. Connecting the abortion argument to an opposition to gay rights trivializes the issue of life, because the two issues aren't equally as weighty (killing babies is a far heavier issue than boys kissing), and every argument against gay marriage as a bane on THE FAMILY is, to put it frankly, hopelessly stupid. So, Huckabee seems to have understood this point, at least on some level, and is bringing the argument to the forefront again with a better rationale than 'abortion makes the baby Jesus cry'. Good on Huckabee.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Mike Huckabee Extended Interview Pt. 1
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11 comments:

  1. Mike Huckabee will never be president.

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  2. Any woman that ever voted for someone anti-choice is just an idiot. Ladies, you've got a choice. That makes you a person. A full person. You can't take away choice from a full, free person. Its a right. Anyone that cant see that as a fundamental...we may as well be on different planets. And why the hell is Mike Huckabee so eager to look up my woman's coochie? That's hers yo.

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  3. I don't think a woman is stupid for being pro-life. For some it doesn't boil down to an issue of privacy, but under what circumstances it's okay to take another human being's life.

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  4. To place a fetus not even (3) months in the womb on equal ground as me is an insult. The potential may be there, but f**k anybody that tells me were equal. Time doesn't stand still, you make abortion illegal and then...what? The conservatives will stop there? Nothing just stops. That's just battle # 1 for the next round. Suddenly a woman can't have multiple sex partners "That leads to a higher rate of pregnancy you know. Can't allow that." The whole abortion argument is so stupid. Completely made up as an issue by politicians and religious leaders (same thing). How many Pro-lifers go to prisons and fight against the death penalty? Its a proven fact that DNA evidence exonerates 20% of those on death-row (look it up). Where's the outrage? Where's the calling? And what if a black man knocks-up a white woman. My God, what would Richard Nixon and other "conservatives" say to that?

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  5. I understand what you're saying, I just don't think you're dealing with the core issue: when is it okay to kill another human being?

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  6. What are you calling a human being?

    And by the way, just out of curiosity, how many children did Jesus have? My limited understanding is 0. Perhaps more people should follow his example.

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  7. You can place the worth of the unborn baby's life anywhere on the value spectrum you would like as it grows closer and closer to viability (or beyond, if you are Peter Singer),but that is the honest way to look at the decision that is being made when abortion is being considered.

    Jesus had 0 kids? I'm totally fine with people following that example. I would rest easier knowing that certain people would never reproduce.

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  8. Ha! I know he never got married. I guess Jesus was more of a do as I say not as I do kind of guy: No kids. Never married. Basically committed suicide if I interpret the story correctly. And how or why he could have anything to say about abortion when he lived over 2,000 years ago I guess is besides the point. The smart people know what he meant. They'll tell us what to do!

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  9. We can always rely on the smart people.

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