• ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    Um, what about the belief that an unborn fetus has a soul? That’s a belief that tens of millions of American women sincerely hold…

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      That belief is unsupported by scripture, but even if it was, religious beliefs should not be the basis for federal law.

      If you believe an unborn fetus has a soul, don’t have an abortion.

      • cadekat@pawb.social
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        5 months ago

        Let me preface this by saying that I am 100% pro-choice, and that I agree with the spirit of your comment, but…

        This argument doesn’t work. It’s like saying “if you believe in the value of human life, don’t go on a murder spree.”

        These people legitimately believe that aborting a fetus is just as wrong as killing a child/adult, and that it is their moral duty to prevent all types of murder.

        • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          And I’m saying their beliefs are religious, and religious beliefs are not the basis of our laws.

          There are people who legitimately believe that stepping on the Koran, or discarding the Eucharist, or believing a different faith is a crime worthy of punishment, and it is their moral duty to prevent those crimes, too. That’s not an argument to make something illegal, in fact it’s an argument specifically prohibited by the Constitution of the United States.

          People believe all sorts of crazy shit, and while I respect rheir right to believe it, they have no right to force that belief on others.

    • Jomega@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Wrongly, because the Bible not only doesn’t condemn it but actually gives instructions on how to perform one. (Numbers 5:11-31)

      Also, souls haven’t been proven to exist, so it’s kind of moot.

    • ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      They are welcome to hold any religious beliefs they want, but they have no right to force others to adhere to that belief.

      • Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 months ago

        Which is the crux of the issue. Nobody is forcing them to have an abortion, they’re forcing other people to not. It’s non of their business what other people do with their own body.

    • Omnificer@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Even allowing for the unproven assertion that souls exist, at no point does that soul obligate giving up bodily autonomy.

      You can’t use organs from corpses without permission, you can’t force a drunk driver to provide an organ to a kid they ran over, you can’t force a parent to donate an organ to their own child. All of these things would save “souls” but is hardly part of pro-forced birth platforms.

      And if fetuses have souls, that would surely make the Christian god the true murderer as 10 to 20% of all pregnancies end in miscarriages, but the Christian god is held to a lower moral standard than human beings by pro-forced birthers. And the governments that reject welfare programs are also held to lower moral standard for some reason, as well.

      • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        You don’t need to agree with the women who oppose abortion because they believe a fetus has a soul in order to accept that these women do in fact oppose abortion because they believe a fetus has a soul. I’m not arguing that they’re right but only that they have their reasons, which they aren’t secretive about. People who wonder “how could women vote for Republicans” are ignoring the straightforward explanation that those women readily provide.

        • Omnificer@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          If they can’t give a reason that’s internally consistent why should I believe them?

        • GardenVarietyAnxiety@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          This is the internet in 2024. You can only be “Right” or “Wrong” and that depends on which color flag the topic falls under, unfortunately.

          I’m slowly giving up on even trying to highlight any shades of grey. The goal on both sides seems to be “Shoot first, as questions later.”

          Just hoping cooler heads prevail.

    • jjjalljs
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      5 months ago

      Religious beliefs are irrelevant outside of the personal life.

      Most people don’t even follow their religion RAW. Bunch of munchkins running bullshit homebrew rulings.

    • PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      It’s stupid and completely unfounded in any medical science regarding when the Fetus is actually a living human being.

      Show me a woman who claims she genuinely would see a fetus in a jar and an infant newborn as equally worth saving in a crisis and I will show you a woman who swears she’d have totally been a punk rock abolitionist if she was around in the South in the antebellum years.

      Also it literally isn’t sincere belief, the Bible has exactly one thing to say about abortion, and that’s how to perform one via medicine.

      God gaveth unto the Jews, the pill.

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      5 months ago

      It’s a belief they have only because they were told to believe it. I can’t respect that.

    • Wogi@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      People like to forget that we live in a country with a huge deeply religious population, and that women are more likely to be anti abortion than men are.

      • valaramech@kbin.social
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        5 months ago

        I’m totally okay with those people thinking abortion is wrong and not getting then. I’m not okay with it when those people try to force their ideals on my niece or my sister.

        I’d be just as not okay with it if the situation was reversed and we were somehow requiring women to get abortions for whatever reason. Just stay the fuck out of people’s medical decisions.