Is a proper discussion on abortion possible?

[Lugh Ildánach 2,352]

http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2014/11/18/parents-children-syndrome-abortion-vs-hardship-false-binary/

 

I came across the above article while examining my own views on the subject and found the approach refreshing.

 

It seems most of the left chose to close their eyes to the capitalist agenda that is behind the drive to increase abortion of the working class. But at the same time those who do present a critical alternative analysis often still resort to crass arguments and language which have more in common with the shame based analysis of the reactionary and conservative right and fail to engage on the very real issues that patriarchy and capitalism currently impose.

 

It seems there is little real debate going on, but just two sides entrenching themselves for the next battle. A real socialist alternative needs to be advanced, we will get nowhere if people are presented with a choice only between liberalism and patriarchy.

[Fodla32 3,692]

http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2014/11/18/parents-children-syndrome-abortion-vs-hardship-false-binary/

 

I came across the above article while examining my own views on the subject and found the approach refreshing.

 

It seems most of the left chose to close their eyes to the capitalist agenda that is behind the drive to increase abortion of the working class. But at the same time those who do present a critical alternative analysis often still resort to crass arguments and language which have more in common with the shame based analysis of the reactionary and conservative right and fail to engage on the very real issues that patriarchy and capitalism currently impose.

 

It seems there is little real debate going on, but just two sides entrenching themselves for the next battle. A real socialist alternative needs to be advanced, we will get nowhere if people are presented with a choice only between liberalism and patriarchy.

 

 

That's a good article. Well, as you know, I have a mentally handicapped sister.  It's not DS, but some brain damage my mother thinks she got in the womb. There are five of us, and we grew up on the farm in a close knit community.  No doubt my mother suffered sadness that my sister is handicapped, but it never seemed strange to us at all, and nobody in our community found it strange either.   But, that kind of rural setting is a million miles from what most parents face today. The mentality of those people of my youth is also a million miles from the mentality of today's Ireland.  My sister is a happy person, who survived the forced migration to the city better than the rest of us did.  She has never failed to lift my spirits and give me a sense that life is worth living - even when the rest of the world was very dark and desolate for me.

 

The writer asks a good question when he asks if the task is not to rebuild our communities.  Any Socialist would say yes. Sadly, many, if not most of today's Socialists also say that abortion is some kind of human right. This is a contradiction.  Abortion is not a right in a real community, and you will never build a community around individual rights.  Individual rights are expressly anti-communal.  Even the term "pro-choice" is a denial of the communal, and sets the debate on the level of private ownership of the body.  Abortion becomes a liberal right in a liberal society. The economic and social questions are excluded. On the other hand, the "pro-life" side usually sets the argument in terms of the individual rights of human life. Again, this is an essentially liberal argument, that excludes the economic and social questions.

 

But, it probably isn't possible to have a real debate on these issues, as modern democracy is all about soundbites and appeals to the most basic emotions, and where Liberalism is regarded as the set of rules according to which the game must be played.  Whoever appeals to reason will simply lose in any modern Western democracy.  Anyone questioning Liberalism will be deemed to be cheating, and thus disqualified from taking part.