Melissa Harris-Perry: Life Begins When the Parents Think it Does

[DC Al Fine]

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Another comment by the anti-science left. This is truly a monstrous view that allows for infanticide both before and after birth. In Ms. Perry's eyes, it's ok to smother an infant if Mommy & Daddy don't want the child.  For many on the pro-choice side, this is ultimately what abortion is all about; not cases of rape/incest, not the mother's life, but rather they do not want anyone to be inconvenienced by the consequences of their actions and are prepared to snuff out the most vulnerable among is to achieve that end.

Kyrie eleison

You can watch the clip here

[Gass3268]

If a pregnant women thinks that giving birth to the child will be an incovience to her, that is just as a valid excuse to have an abortion as rape, incense and her health. I applaud the great Melissa Harris-Perry on this segment , she is always brilliant and thought provoking.

[bedstuy]

I think people are conflating different things when they talk about whether life begins. 

Nobody objects to the idea that biologically the beginning of a human life is the creation of a fertilized egg.  That's the beginning point of a human life, clearly. 

However, people differ on what constitutes a human life, in a meaningful sense that would preclude an abortion.  There is a difference for some people between "alive" and an individual human being.  Think about the difference between a fertilized egg failing to implant and a later pregnancy miscarriage.  I'm not sure on this, but I think the majority of fertilized eggs do not implant.  Should people see that as the death of a child?  There's a gray area in this that you're not acknowledging. 

On the other hand, I hate the flippant tone some pro-choice people use.  It is not all about the parents decision.  There is a real argument that abortion at a certain point is morally reprehensible, absent some critical health reason for the health of the mother.  There are real moral issues at play in abortion and to reduce it to purely a question of pregnant mother's rights is myopic. 

[DC Al Fine]

If a pregnant women thinks that giving birth to the child will be an incovience to her, that is just as a valid excuse to have an abortion as rape, incense and her health. I applaud the great Melissa Harris-Perry on this segment , she is always brilliant and thought provoking.

But apparently life begins when the mother says it does This isn't even about abortion. This is about infanticide outside of the womb. For the record do you support a woman's right to smother an infant in it's crib as Ms. Harris-Perry?

[Grumpier Than Thou]

I love Melissa Harris-Perry so much

[DrScholl]

Anti-science left? Yeah, you're not going to be able to flip that one around, nice try though. The abortion argument needs to stop, pro-lifers need to get a life and get over it.

[TNF]

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I dunno, Gass3268, she was one of those hand-wringing 'THINK OF THE CHILDREN' "liberals" who got all in a fuss when the Chicago Teachers went out on strike last year. She also seems to think that white liberals who are upset with Obama are racists.

MHP is pretty much everything wrong with American liberalism.

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>implying that the left understands science anymore than the right does

Literally no one in American political life knows a lick about science, and that includes the left, which harbors a large number of anti-nuclear nuts who have literally no idea about what nuclear energy is/what it actually does. Just because the right has absolutely no idea what it's talking about when it comes to scientific issues doesn't mean that we on the left have it all together, either. There are plenty of anti-GMO, anti-nuclear whackjobs who proudly identify as left-wingers, and they're what I would refer to as the 'anti-science left'. We need to clean house ourselves.

[DC Al Fine]

Anti-science left? Yeah, you're not going to be able to flip that one around, nice try though. The abortion argument needs to stop, pro-lifers need to get a life and get over it.

A sound argument. I especially liked the part where you addressed my argument instead of just stating you are correct and going ad hominem.... Oh wait.

[Lief 🗽]

lol, no one is talking about infanticide, calm down dude.

This abortion thing is exhausting. We know conservatives think women should go back to being treated as the baby-making property of their husbands. We know they're hiding this in arguments about the well-being of babies or whatever, even though conservatives repeatedly vote to cut funding to actually give these babies food and healthcare once they're born. This constant fake outrage about the poor babies and evil leftist baby murderers is really tiring.

If a pregnant woman thinks a child is going to inconvenience her life, she should be able to have an abortion. Conservatives sure aren't going to take care of the child for her. Look at Texas. Abortion is basically outlawed now, and the government refuses to expand medicaid so those unwanted children and their mothers aren't going to have healthcare. But conservatives don't give a sh[inks] about that, because they're both out of the womb by that point, and no longer conservatives' problem.

[The Free North]

Is this the lady with the lisp?

[The Free North]

lol, no one is talking about infanticide, calm down dude.

This abortion thing is exhausting. We know conservatives think women should go back to being treated as the baby-making property of their husbands. We know they're hiding this in arguments about the well-being of babies or whatever, even though conservatives repeatedly vote to cut funding to actually give these babies food and healthcare once they're born. This constant fake outrage about the poor babies and evil leftist baby murderers is really tiring.

If a pregnant woman thinks a child is going to inconvenience her life, she should be able to have an abortion. Conservatives sure aren't going to take care of the child for her. Look at Texas. Abortion is basically outlawed now, and the government refuses to expand medicaid so those unwanted children and their mothers aren't going to have healthcare. But conservatives don't give a sh[inks] about that, because they're both out of the womb by that point, and no longer conservatives' problem.

Amen

China has murdered 310 million babies since the one child policy was implemented.

We are far behind and losing ground every day. In fact, this site could start advertising for abortions more. Everyone must chip in.

USA must be #1

[Gass3268]

If a pregnant women thinks that giving birth to the child will be an incovience to her, that is just as a valid excuse to have an abortion as rape, incense and her health. I applaud the great Melissa Harris-Perry on this segment , she is always brilliant and thought provoking.

But apparently life begins when the mother says it does This isn't even about abortion. This is about infanticide outside of the womb. For the record do you support a woman's right to smother an infant in it's crib as Ms. Harris-Perry?

The fact that your mind automatically goes to infanticide so how messed up the anti-choice rhetoric has gotten. Like Lief said, no one is talking about this.

[The Free North]

If a pregnant women thinks that giving birth to the child will be an incovience to her, that is just as a valid excuse to have an abortion as rape, incense and her health. I applaud the great Melissa Harris-Perry on this segment , she is always brilliant and thought provoking.

But apparently life begins when the mother says it does This isn't even about abortion. This is about infanticide outside of the womb. For the record do you support a woman's right to smother an infant in it's crib as Ms. Harris-Perry?

The fact that your mind automatically goes to infanticide so how messed up the anti-choice rhetoric has gotten. Like Lief said, no one is talking about this.

If you take what she said literally, he's not wrong.

But if we assume she meant life starts when the parents think it does....until the baby is born, then he's wrong

[Gass3268]

If a pregnant women thinks that giving birth to the child will be an incovience to her, that is just as a valid excuse to have an abortion as rape, incense and her health. I applaud the great Melissa Harris-Perry on this segment , she is always brilliant and thought provoking.

But apparently life begins when the mother says it does This isn't even about abortion. This is about infanticide outside of the womb. For the record do you support a woman's right to smother an infant in it's crib as Ms. Harris-Perry?

The fact that your mind automatically goes to infanticide so how messed up the anti-choice rhetoric has gotten. Like Lief said, no one is talking about this.

If you take what she said literally, he's not wrong.

But if we assume she meant life starts when the parents think it does....until the baby is born, then he's wrong

I think any sane person would make that assumption.

[The Free North]

If a pregnant women thinks that giving birth to the child will be an incovience to her, that is just as a valid excuse to have an abortion as rape, incense and her health. I applaud the great Melissa Harris-Perry on this segment , she is always brilliant and thought provoking.

But apparently life begins when the mother says it does This isn't even about abortion. This is about infanticide outside of the womb. For the record do you support a woman's right to smother an infant in it's crib as Ms. Harris-Perry?

The fact that your mind automatically goes to infanticide so how messed up the anti-choice rhetoric has gotten. Like Lief said, no one is talking about this.

If you take what she said literally, he's not wrong.

But if we assume she meant life starts when the parents think it does....until the baby is born, then he's wrong

I think any sane person would make that assumption.

Conservatives often miss the 'sane' boat by a wide margin.

[The Free North]

The funniest thing about this lady is that I thought kids were supposed to be property of the collective?

How dare you suggest that individual parents have the authority to decide when their childs life beings. Children's lives begin when we all, as a group, say they do. How naive of her.

It should obviously be up to the community to vote, because we need a more collective notion of children if we want to raise them properly because the MSNBC ad said so.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

The funniest thing about this lady is that I thought kids were supposed to be property of the collective?

How dare you suggest that individual parents have the authority to decide when their childs life beings. Children's lives begin when we all, as a group, say they do. How naive of her.

It should obviously be up to the community to vote, because we need a more collective notion of children if we want to raise them properly because the MSNBC ad said so.

[Paul Kemp]

Oh MHP? That's Snowstalker's girl.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

So, Melissa Harris Perry said something totally irrational. What else is new?

[ElectionsGuy]

If a pregnant women thinks that giving birth to the child will be an incovience to her, that is just as a valid excuse to have an abortion as rape, incense and her health. I applaud the great Melissa Harris-Perry on this segment , she is always brilliant and thought provoking.

That's ridiculous and selfish.

[The Free North]

The funniest thing about this lady is that I thought kids were supposed to be property of the collective?

How dare you suggest that individual parents have the authority to decide when their childs life beings. Children's lives begin when we all, as a group, say they do. How naive of her.

It should obviously be up to the community to vote, because we need a more collective notion of children if we want to raise them properly because the MSNBC ad said so.

Ever hear of sarcasm?



Its ok though, maybe you'll get 'em next time sport

[TNF]

If a pregnant women thinks that giving birth to the child will be an incovience to her, that is just as a valid excuse to have an abortion as rape, incense and her health. I applaud the great Melissa Harris-Perry on this segment , she is always brilliant and thought provoking.

That's ridiculous and selfish.

>Libertarian
>Calling someone selfish

[Vosem]

First off, I'm very much pro-choice and have to say that MHP is basically correct that a collection of cells that cannot think or breathe certainly cannot claim to be called a human life. That said, it is certainly not a question of 'how the parents feel' that determines when such life can reasonably be said to begin; it is a question of both biology, which determines when certain crucial functions begin, and of morality, which defines what 'human life' is.

Another thing:

We know conservatives think women should go back to being treated as the baby-making property of their husbands. We know they're hiding this in arguments about the well-being of babies or whatever, even though conservatives repeatedly vote to cut funding to actually give these babies food and healthcare once they're born.

This post demonstrates a lot of what is wrong with political discourse in the US, both on the left and the right. Lief knows that people who disagree with him are sexist! How? Clearly because he is telepathic. Or maybe he says so because he knows it's easier to build up strawmen rather than to debate an issue on its own terms.

If a pregnant women thinks that giving birth to the child will be an incovience to her, that is just as a valid excuse to have an abortion as rape, incense and her health. I applaud the great Melissa Harris-Perry on this segment , she is always brilliant and thought provoking.

That's ridiculous and selfish.

It is not. It's ridiculous to think that public policy once forced women who did not have the experience, resources, or desire to have children give birth to a child. That such women should not have children, and if they do certainly shouldn't be tasked with raising them, seems to me pretty common-sense.

[ElectionsGuy]

That's ridiculous and selfish.

It is not. It's ridiculous to think that public policy once forced women who did not have the experience, resources, or desire to have children give birth to a child. That such women should not have children, and if they do certainly shouldn't be tasked with raising them, seems to me pretty common-sense.

If a women gets impregnated and she doesn't want it the least she should do is give the baby up for adoption after birth. Its her responsibility (and the father, if one) to take care of the baby after she gives birth, what I was saying was it is selfish to have an abortion on a baby because they made an irresponsible choice at a bad time. An increasing amount of people have irresponsible pregnancies leading to abortions of children that could have been viable people. Its really more of collapse of personal responsibility than anything, and that's my opinion.

I do agree with that first statement you made, but people who have abortions simply because they don't have the experience/skills to have a baby should give birth and give it up for adoption, an abortion is pretty much killing the baby because they themselves made a bad decision, and instead of taking it out on themselves they take it out on the baby they kill, and that in my opinion is selfish. I respect your opinions and understand where your coming from, but I just wanted you to understand my view.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Ever hear of sarcasm?



Its ok though, maybe you'll get 'em next time sport

No, I got it. You were not being sarcastic and secretly agreeing with MHP, you were still tearing into her argument and trying to call her a hypocrite.

In other words, you missed the point.

"Maybe you'll get 'em next time sport"