Can you be left-wing and anti-abortion?
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Can you be left-wing and anti-abortion?
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medhi hasan got slated on twitter over the weekend for a blog he wrote for the huff post about his view on abortion. hasan is a lefty, having worked for the new statesman, but questionned that idea th
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Forums » Off duty » News & media » Can you be left-wing and anti-abortion?
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Can you be left-wing and anti-abortion?
posted at 15/10/2012 10:10 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 26
First: 10/4/2012 Last: 1/5/2013 |
medhi hasan got slated on twitter over the weekend for a blog he wrote for the huff post about his view on abortion. hasan is a lefty, having worked for the new statesman, but questionned that idea that all left wingers must be pro-choice. he wrote "some of the earliest advocates of women's rights, such Mary Wollstonecraft, were anti-abortion, as were pioneers of US feminism such as Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; the latter referred to abortion as "infanticide". In recent years, some feminists have recognised the sheer injustice of asking a woman to abort her child in order to participate fully in society; in the words of the New Zealand feminist author Daphne de Jong: "If women must submit to abortion to preserve their lifestyle or career, their economic or social status, they are pandering to a system devised and run by men for male convenience." http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mehdi-hasan/being-prolife-doesnt-make_b_1964683.html does hasan have a point? or is he just a traditionalist who has leanings to the left? is being left-wing incompatible with being anti-abortion? |
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Re: Can you be left-wing and anti-abortion?
posted at 15/10/2012 10:59 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1271
First: 13/4/2010 Last: 23/5/2013 |
Abortion is a moral issue not a political one (unless one wishes to view it from a libertarian point of view I guess) and on that basis it's quite possible to hold any political stance yet still be for or against the availability of termination of pregnancy. |
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Re: Can you be left-wing and anti-abortion?
posted at 15/10/2012 12:07 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2060
First: 12/3/2010 Last: 24/5/2013 |
Dr.Octagon, I fear you, or Mr.Hasan, confuse a left-wing political view with feminism. They are not the same, and there have been many right wing feminists. If you google for "A feminist view of abortion" you will find that this is contentious subject, with an intense philosophical debate. Even Margaret Thatcher, who might be considered a great feminsist for her acheiving the post of UK Prime Minister, is not accepted by feminists as such. John |
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Re: Can you be left-wing and anti-abortion?
posted at 15/10/2012 3:53 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 579
First: 8/6/2011 Last: 22/5/2013 |
Right and left are very relative . It always depends from who is in your right or left and by if you say the truth . In Greece for example the left-middle party started at the 1980 with declarations more on the left than the modern extrem left parties ( like the promice that will get Greece out of EUand NATO ) continued in 2000 - 2012 with policies more on the right than the right parties and arrived in 2012 straggling and promising that will keep Greece in the EU ... In the times when the state of Romania was communist , the abortions were elegal because the policy of the state was to make more population . In China they are doing the opposite way bacause they want less population. ( By the way I saw yesterday I fine film about this matter Left and right is a false and a mistake in policy and in life . Their only use is to des orientate . |
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Re: Can you be left-wing and anti-abortion?
posted at 15/10/2012 10:26 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 3045
First: 27/3/2012 Last: 20/5/2013 |
Medical termination of pregnancy is many times the necessity to avoid birth of genetically abnormal child & is ethical. But in many countries female foeticide has been practiced for traditional & social male dominated cultures which has dramatically reduced the female to male ratio posing a threat to the entire humankind. Sush practice to illegally aborting female fetuses should be banned. |
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Re: Can you be left-wing and anti-abortion?
posted at 15/10/2012 11:41 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2060
First: 12/3/2010 Last: 24/5/2013 |
Dr.Ashutosh, Surely you mean, identifying female foetuses so that they may be aborted, should be illegal? In legal and moral terms, the justification for abortion can never depend on the sex of the foetus alone. JOhn |
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Re: Can you be left-wing and anti-abortion?
posted at 16/10/2012 2:27 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 3045
First: 27/3/2012 Last: 20/5/2013 |
In Response to Re: Can you be left-wing and anti-abortion?: Dr.Ashutosh, Surely you mean, identifying female foetuses so that they may be aborted, should be illegal? In legal and moral terms, the justification for abortion can never depend on the sex of the foetus alone. JOhn Posted by John D Respected John, I do agree that 'sex' itself cannot be the justification for abortion. The concern is regarding increasing rate of irrational female abortions, only because the parents do not want a female child for social & cultural reasons. Do you think it justifiable? This would result in a natural imbalance between male & female. In India this practice is 'strictly' banned under the PNDT act. |
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Re: Can you be left-wing and anti-abortion?
posted at 16/10/2012 5:45 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2060
First: 12/3/2010 Last: 24/5/2013 |
Not only in India: ChinaDaily.com reported earlier this year that: "Census data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that in 2011, China's gender ratio stood at 117.78 newborn boys for every 100 baby girls, a continuous decline from 119.45 in 2009 and 117.94 in 2010." This is an national average and in some provinces the ratio is 1.3:1! The bias of some societies towards male children doesn't matter. The practice of antenatal gender diagnosis does, and doctors' organisations should make it clear that it is unethical. I would be interested in views from people in societies where a man is permitted multiple wives, obviously Moslem and Mormon (old style). If every married man has only two wives, then half the men have none, so polygamy has the same tendency as preferential female abortion. Evolution has given humans an almost exactly equal male/female ratio, so how have these social practices affected those cultures in this respect? John |
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Re: Can you be left-wing and anti-abortion?
posted at 16/10/2012 5:56 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 3045
First: 27/3/2012 Last: 20/5/2013 |
Well explained respected John! We feel helpless about how have these social practices affected those cultures in this respect. I would like to request you to please post on my interesting topic 'D2D contribution to medicine' as well as please share your experiences with London Olympics. |
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Re: Can you be left-wing and anti-abortion?
posted at 16/10/2012 6:14 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 85
First: 20/5/2010 Last: 22/5/2013 |
I think any worldview will usually mean that we are left-wing on certain issues but right-wing on others. For example my (personal) Christian worldview means I have mostly left-wing views on education, healthcare and welfare, but have more right wing views on justice, crime, and abortion. That said even Christians don't agree on all these issues! Jesus wasn't a politician so didn't explicitly teach on many of these issues - so we are left with trying to apply moral principles to complex political issues. A difficult task indeed, and not one we are likely to get perfectly right in all instances!! |
Forums » Off duty » News & media » Can you be left-wing and anti-abortion?
