Are you Prochoice?

[Antonio the Sixth]

I support reasonable time limits (the point when a fetus can feel pain seems like the most morally justifiable cutoff line), but otherwise yes. I'm really glad most West European countries have reached a lasting consensus on this issue, and I can only hope that America will some day join them.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Nope, never will be.

I support reasonable time limits (the point when a fetus can feel pain seems like the most morally justifiable cutoff line), but otherwise yes. I'm really glad most West European countries have reached a lasting consensus on this issue, and I can only hope that America will some day join them.

Just out of interest, which Western European nations haven't reached a consensus?

France, Britain, Germany, and even friggin' Italy of all places have had right-wing governments for a majority of the past 4 decades, and none of them has made even a symbolic attempt at restricting abortion in any way. Aside from the latter, none has a sizable pro-life bloc (there are of course a few vocal activists, but at least in France they are seen as being far out of the mainstream).

Sounds like a consensus to me.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yes(on guns, abortions, and spying on citizens).

You believe the government has a right to choose whether or not it spies on citizens?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Nope, never will be.

I support reasonable time limits (the point when a fetus can feel pain seems like the most morally justifiable cutoff line), but otherwise yes. I'm really glad most West European countries have reached a lasting consensus on this issue, and I can only hope that America will some day join them.

Just out of interest, which Western European nations haven't reached a consensus?

France, Britain, Germany, and even friggin' Italy of all places have had right-wing governments for a majority of the past 4 decades, and none of them has made even a symbolic attempt at restricting abortion in any way. Aside from the latter, none has a sizable pro-life bloc (there are of course a few vocal activists, but at least in France they are seen as being far out of the mainstream).

Sounds like a consensus to me.

But with the exception of France, all of those countries have, at least on paper, far stricter abortion laws than most US states.

A bit stricter, maybe, but they are publicly subsidized and thus accessible to low-income women. And of course, those countries don't have a party that's been obsessively trying every possible legislative trick to shut down most abortion clinics (and largely succeeded).

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yup, zero questions in my mind. If anything the US is currently too strict when it comes to abortion.

The US is one of the least strict nations when it comes to abortion.  I think China and North Korea are the only countries with less restrictions.

As I said, the theoretical abortion laws become pretty irrelevant when you have State legislatures trying every conceivable trick to make life impossible for abortion clinics.

[Antonio the Sixth]

44 to 39 total, YES by my count.

YES: 53.012%
NO: 46.987%

Approx. 3.5% MOE

People who voted in this poll are not a random sample. There's no such thing as a "margin of error".

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yes, I'm actually pro-choice, unlike a lot of "pro-choice" people.

Could you elaborate on what you mean by that?

The main thing is that I don't support requiring parental notification.

Yes. The parental notification thing is silly.

Do many "pro-choice" people support it? That's disturbing.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Honestly curious, what is the reasoning behind parental notification being silly? Teens who become pregnant have probably not been pregnant before, it makes sense they should seek many avenues of advice before making a decision on abortion.

Liberal logic is confusing sometimes.  As Carly Fiorina said in one of the GOP debates, why does a teenage girl need her parents' permission to go to a tanning salon but not to get an abortion?

because she's infinitely more likely to face parental abuse for getting an abortion than for goïng to a tanning salon…?

That, and because getting a tan is not a fundamental human right.

[Antonio the Sixth]

44 to 39 total, YES by my count.

YES: 53.012%
NO: 46.987%

Approx. 3.5% MOE

People who voted in this poll are not a random sample. There's no such thing as a "margin of error".

In actuality, it's probably more like a 7% MOE. On Atlasia, there's about a 3.5% margin of difference between the number of the R's/D's/I's.

That's not the point. There is no underlying "population" from which this poll's voters are a random sample. It's not representative of the forum because people self-select by choosing to click the thread and vote in the poll. If a poll is based on self-selection, then its results mean nothing beyond themselves (see the 1936 Literary Digest poll for proof).

[Antonio the Sixth]

One of the things the gay rights movement did right was getting people to publicly identify as gay.  By contrast, I hardly know anyone who will admit to having had an abortion.

This is very true. I think one of the key reasons why the abortion debate has evolved so differently in the US than it has in Europe is because conservatives have been very successful in maintaining a climate of shame around the issue, so that no woman who actually had that experience feels comfortable speaking out. It's easy to demonize people you don't see.