From: riggs@descartes.tec.army.mil (Bill Riggs)
Newsgroups: talk.abortion,talk.politics.misc,talk.religion.misc,misc.legal
Subject: Re: Supreme Court Upholds Freedom of Speech
Date: 22 Jan 93 01:21:09 GMT
Followup-To: talk.abortion,talk.politics.misc,talk.religion.misc,misc.legal
Organization: LNK Corporation, Riverdale, MD

In article <1993Jan18.165516.5248@Princeton.EDU> niepornt@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (David Marc Nieporent) writes:
>In article <1993Jan18.073014.28669@news.acns.nwu.edu> dmeier@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Douglas Meier) writes:
>>In article <1993Jan16.060120.1218@Princeton.EDU> niepornt@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (David Marc Nieporent) writes:
>
>>>As usual, you're wrong.  Having a baby you don't want is a sign of
>>>immaturity.  Having an abortion *is* dealing with the consequences.
>>>Just as having surgery after a car accident is dealing with the
>>>consequences.
>
>>Would you consider carrying the unwanted pregnancy to term and then giving 
>>the child up for adoption an immature choice?  I am truly curious on this
>>point.
>
>No.  Why would I?  
>
>The only immature choice I see is carrying a pregnancy to term, and then
>keeping a child you can't care for.

	I would probably cut Dave some slack here, except:

	1. By HIS definition, it is physiologically impossible for him to
	ever be confronted with such a choice.

	2. He just plain evaded the question. One can only say, by deduction,
	that he DOES consider a woman's taking the child to term and putting
	the child up for adoption to be a "mature choice". Why could he have
	just made a definitive question to that effect. I dunno, maybe it has
	something to do with maturity.

>
>As an aside, if so many of the right wing weren't adamantly opposed to
>birth control, too, this debate would be much less important.  Because
>there is a *direct* inverse correlation between the availability of
>birth control and the abortion rate.

	The only group of which I am aware that opposes contraception is
the Roman Catholic Church. This hardly fits my definition, or that of most
clear thinking people of "right wing". (For those of the reading population
who lack Mr. Nieporent's firm grasp of the obvious, there are many practicing
Catholics who are hardly right wing in their political orientation, and 
conversely, there are lots of other religious and areligious groups - I mean
hard core atheists - who meet virtually all the criteria associated with
the "right wing" where political, economic, and even social issues are
concerned). Only extremists believe there is no middle ground between the 
legal and sanctioned use of contraceptives and handing out rubbers to high 
school students, free of charge. I know of lots of Protestants who disagree
with premarital sex, but I have yet to meet the Protestant who believes
that contraception is wrong within the bonds of matrimony. How does Nieporent's
"direct inverse correlation" track across various ethnic and religious groups,
anyway ?

Bill R.

This .sig is getting to be a habit with me, but it is the only one I've got,
these days.

--

"When up a dangerous faction starts,         "My opinions do not represent
With wrath and vengeance in their hearts;     those of my employer or
By solemn League and Cov'nant bound,          any government agency."
To ruin, slaughter, and confound;             - Bill Riggs (1992)
To turn religion to a fable,
And turn the Government to a Babel;
Pervert the law, disgrace the gown,
Corrupt the senate, rob the crown;
To sacrifice old England's glory,
And make her infamous in story.
When such a tempest shook the land,
How could unguarded virtue stand ?"
- Jonathan Swift (1732)