Questionable conservative thinking in the United States

It might be noted that a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion" and occurs in approximately 30% to 50% of pregnancies.

The above two assertions - that it is the mother's choice, for she is the person most affected, and that the foetus has no expectations of life, does not even have a fully formed brain, are the major reasons why an abortion is morally justified, But there are other supporting arguments.

Judith Jarvis Thompson notes in A Defense of Abortion that it comes as a surprise when one first learns how early in its life the embryo begins to acquire human characteristics. By the tenth week, for example, it already has a face, arms, fingers and toes; it has internal organs, and a brain activity is detectable. She advances her pro-abortion argument:

You are in hospital about to be discharged You wake up in the morning and find yourself back-to-back in bed with an unconscious violinist. A famous unconscious violinist. He has been found to have a fatal kidney ailment, and the Society of Music Lovers has canvassed the available medical records and found that you alone have the right blood type to help. They have therefore harnessed you, and last night the violinist's circulatory system was plugged into yours, so that your kidneys can be used to extract poisons from his blood as well as your own. The director of the hospital now tells you, "Look, we're sorry the Society of Music Lovers did this to you--we would never have permitted it if we had known. But still, they did it, and the violinist is now plugged into you. To unplug you would be to kill him. But never mind, it's only for nine months. By then he will have recovered from his ailment, and can safely be unplugged from you.

Jarvis Thompson then points out that such an imposition on you may go on for much longer, years in fact, and is an excessive demand. It is your right to be unplugged and freed to go about your life. Hers is a make-believe story, a practice much favoured by philosophers, but it nevertheless does give us an insight into this question.This writer believes, however, that the overriding moral obligation is not to kill the violinist, but for far different reasons than if a foetus was the victim

Bernard Gert in his Moral Disagreement and Abortion,argues that "all of the standard positions on abortion are morally acceptable." It is "an unresolvable moral issue". Gert, a moral philosopher known primarily for his work in normative ethics, was born and raised in the United States.

Gert's article devotes most of his discussion to denying that there is an answer to every moral question. Gert uses the analysis of setting the speed limit on a highway. A higher speed has the benefit of enabling us to reach our destination more quickly, freeing time for what may be useful pursuits; a lower speed saves more lives. However, his example is poorly argued. It is similar to the anti-lockdown or anti-vax arguments in the Covid -19 pandemic. A speed limit needs be posted. Constructing a road without a posted speed limit is the least acceptable of all options. It is possible to determine accident and fatality rates with different speed limits, using data from other highways, or the evaluation of different trials on this highway. Governments have an obligation to set traffic rules, line marking, traffic lights, speed limits. Otherwise chaos reigns supreme. We can relate this analysis to those who refuse to wear masks or claim that the social distancing rules infringe on their freedoms. Yet we all believe we should obey the posted speed limits. And that we should stop at red traffic lights. So why do many of us claim that the social distancing rules are infringing on our freedoms? We can, in short, decide what is morally acceptable. The overriding rule over the centuries is that we should choose the option that does the least harm – in the case of an abortion, that choice in most cases does the least harm.

A contributor to pro-choice America (The National Abortion Rights Action League, March, 2019), also give a powerful reason supporting abortion: "My daughter Laurel (named already whilst still in the womb) was diagnosed in May 2012 with catastrophic brain malformations that were overlooked until the 35th week of my dearly wanted pregnancy. During counselling, doctors told me that Laurel would never talk, walk, hold her head up, or swallow. Instead, her short life would be defined by pain, seizures, and full-body muscle cramps. Eventually, she would choke on her own bodily fluids. After a single injection and a couple of hours, my baby was laid to rest in my womb.

We can also apply the theories of John Rawls who many people consider the greatest moral philosopher of the 20th Century in his A Theory of Justice, to the abortion question. Remember abortion is currently a public policy issue, following Donald Trump's appointment of conservative jurists to the Supreme Court. Rawls' first advocacy is that the greatest possible amount of liberty is provided to members of society, limited only by the notion that the liberty of any one member shall not infringe upon any other member. To deny a woman who seeks an abortion is to infringe on the freedom of that woman.

The second and third of Rawls' guidelines do not appear to apply in the case of abortion, (that inequalities are only to be allowed if the worst off will be better off than they might be under an equal distribution, or if they preclude a person from public office).

Read up on backyard abortions. Many countries, even today, have a horrific history. Legalising abortion will minimise the harm done. Not harming others Would be the dominant or overriding ethical guideline

Finally, most of the world accepts abortions The reasons why the US has such a controversy is the dominant place of religion in US life. Research by the National Opinion Research Centre at the University of Chicago shows that 60% of people in the United States believed in God. This compared with 18% in France,17 % in Great Britain and 25% in Australia. The highest beliefs were 62% in Poland (which is 90% Catholic, and 84% in the Philippines (86% Catholic).