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Friday, December 16, 2005

Achieving Peace, Chapter 6

We've started to read and discuss Rachel McNair's Achieving Peace in the Abortion War. So far we've read chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Now let's look more at Chapter 6, Making Them Fit, No Matter What.

Dr. McNair looks at how it's possible for abortion supporters to reconcile in their own minds the abuse and malpractice common in abortion facilities with the professed goals of empowering women and keeping them safe. She theorizes that at least some abortion supporters have other goals than women's well-being, and thus can blow off the problems as being irrelevant:
If one of the elements that is contradictory can be made unimportant, then that can take care of any tension that might otherwise arise.

An example would be the view that current numbers of population are too high, or that the current numbers of "undesirable" people are too high. There are those who are obsessed with the idea of overpopulation. Some believe in eugenics, the philosophy that certain people are burdens on society and accordingly their births should be prevented.

Many of those who believe overpopulation is the cause of most of the problems the human race now faces, also believe draconian measures may be called for. A little covering up is also justified. Limiting births becomes far more important than concerns like the safety of women, and the prevention of births is a goal worthy of the occasional dead woman. If people are less likely to be convinced to have abortions because they fear unsafe consequences, then they need to be convinced that they are safe. That doesn't make it necessary that they actually are safe, only that people think that they are. Choice, consciousness-raising, safety and respect for women all become irrelevant, which means that their conflict with a position in favor of pushing abortion would not bring on the tension of contradictions.

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