In a recent exchange of comments on a dKos diary concerning abortion rights, a participant claimed that he was "pro-life" while at the same time seeming to deny it. (Note: I never use the generally shallow, dishonest, and deliberately deceptive term "pro-life" outside of quotation marks.)
I asked him, "Why are you 'pro-life' when it results in such massive human suffering?" He replied, "Does it really? I wish we really could know. In the end, however, suffering is an inevitable part of everyone's life. Killing need not be. While it's right to reduce suffering, it's also right to avoid killing in order to reduce it. Where do we draw the line? That's harder to answer." I easily enough answered, "Yes, it obviously really does result in massive human suffering. It is not hard at all for me to answer that the line should be drawn by each individual woman, not by the tyranny of your traditionally misogynistic religious mythology striving to revive the Holy Inquisition." Not appreciative of that, he shot back with, "Holy inquisition??? Where's that coming from? Stay on topic, please."
Yes, indeed, in my opinion, the "Holy Inquisition" lives. This is why it is very much on topic whenever abortion rights are considered. . .
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