On Judge Jerry Smith's "Homework Assignment" And Judicial Deference To The Legislature

bwarbiany · 3 months

Yes, I'm the author of the article.

But again, I think there's a moral obligation to a human being to give that human the chance to live. The question is whether there's at any point a legal obligation to the mother to do so.

If a law were written that required third-trimester pregnant woman who wanted to be rid of the pregnancy to carry the baby to term [and opt for adoption since they didn't want the child], I can't say I'd be opposed. At that point the legal question of competing rights, IMHO, likely should fall in favor of the unborn child. In the first trimester, when you're in early formation of organs and brain stem, the legal question of competing rights likely IMHO should fall in favor of the mother.

Being a libertarian atheist, and possessing a Y chromosome, abortion is one of those issues that I largely avoid. Despite writing hundreds of political posts for The Liberty Papers and for my personal blog before that, I've devoted only a handful to the topic of abortion. But if you wanted to nail me down on the subject, I'd support bans on late-term abortion, and despite my own moral belief (and that of my wife) that abortion is a bad moral idea prior to that time, wouldn't support bans on abortion earlier in the term of pregnancy.

If you had to nail it down that way, you could claim I'm pro-choice and you can claim I'm pro-life -- it just depends at what point we can agree that life possesses legal rights. I happen to believe that there is a point still within the womb where that should be the case.

bwarbiany · 3 months

Well, you excerpted me out of context there, buddy... The statement was prefaced with:

"For my wife and I, I'm very strongly pro-life."

By which I mean that I couldn't imagine a scenario where either of us would ever have a reason to choose abortion, regardless of the circumstances. In which I go on to say that if we were faced with the knowledge that we were going to have a child with Down's, we would not abort that child.

When I say (again earlier than what you excerpted) that I'm "generally" pro-life, it's because I believe that there is some point prior to birth that the growing baby is "person" enough to have rights. And as a result, all questions then become one of competing rights between the mother and the [unborn] baby. Generally in our society, to kill something that has rights requires a pretty compelling justification (i.e. the death penalty, self-defense, etc).

But would I lock a woman in a cage for being forced to make that horrible choice? I'm just not sure I'm strong enough in my belief that I'd be able to do so without regret. I'm a libertarian. I don't like locking people in cages.

bwarbiany

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