Who would seriously claim a 12-week-old fetus is a person? Who would seriously deny that a 24-week-old fetus is a person? People say that abortion is divisive, but I don't think they realize just how much consensus there is on the issue in America. That consensus is obscured because the two incumbent parties pander to their hardcore base, but just look at the polling results. People were asked: "Do you think abortion should generally be legal or generally illegal during each of the following stages of pregnancy?" The answers were:
“Legal” “Illegal” First trimester 66% 29% Second trimester 25% 68% Third trimester 10% 84% The Democrat/LP position (legal in every trimester) has only 10% support, and the Republican position (illegal in every trimester) has only 29% support. If the Libertarian Party advocated legal in the first trimester and illegal in the third, we would be consistent with the views of the remaining 61% of the public. A sample plank is at http://marketliberal.org/PlatComWiki/Abortion_Plank. I offer a $200 bounty for identifying any other position the LP could take that 60% of Libertarians and 60% of Americans support and that is not already staked out by the Ds or Rs or Greens or CP. (And no, my position on abortion is not determined by polls. The two extreme positions on when personhood begins -- conception and birth -- are both obviously wrong. The two tenable positions available are viability and neurological development. I used to assert the former, but the technology-driven malleability of that line brought me around to the latter position.)The abortion issue is a unique opportunity for the LP to position itself as the party of common sense and reasonableness, showing how a sober analysis of individual rights can drive consensus among mainstream Americans. This opportunity is so unique that I'll pay that $200 bounty for a position that ANY of these five parties could take (but hasn't yet) where both 60% of their members and 60% of Americans support it and it is not already staked out by any of the other four parties.I don't think any other such position exists in American politics. You get my $200 if you can give a counter-example. -- Posted By Brian Holtz to Knowing Humans at 12/05/2007 07:41:00 PM
