From: noraa@cbnewsk.cb.att.com (aaron.l.hoffmeyer)
Subject: Re: Muffy becomes anti-choice
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 02:26:21 GMT

In article <ZEN.93Jan25113710@death.corp.sun.com> zen@death.corp.sun.com (d) writes:
>
>In article <1993Jan21.121756.7509@zooid.guild.org> Will Steeves <goid@zooid.guild.org> writes:
>> muffy@remarque.berkeley.edu (Muffy Barkocy)
>> >In article <1992Dec23.045347.27287@cbnewsk.cb.att.com> noraa@cbnewsk.cb.att.com
>> >(aaron.l.hoffmeyer) writes:
>> >>In article <MUFFY.92Dec21182007@remarque.berkeley.edu> muffy@remarque.berkeley
>> >edu (Muffy Barkocy) writes:
>> >>>I consider abortion to be *one way* of "dealing with the
>> >>>consequences."  A perfectly fine way, by the way, but not by any means
>> >>>the only one.
>> >>Abortion is not perfectly fine, it is NOT something great or glorious.
>> >[more of the same stupid interpretation deleted.]
>> >Actually, "perfectly fine" != "great or glorious."  Come back when you
>> >understand the English language.
>
>> Muffy, methinks that you were looking too hard for something to hurl
>> at Aaron.  I do not really believe that he was implying that "perfectly
>> fine" means "great" or "glorious," and I would think it to be stretching
>> to attempt to claim that he did.
>
>  He implied that muffy was saying that abortion was a great or glorious
>option, since no one else said anything positive about it in the thread,
>he quoted muffy as saying that it was a reasonable alternative, and then
>he came back saying that it wasn't great or glorious.  If he was
>interjecting his personal opinion there, and not interpreting what she
>had to say, he should make it clear.
>
>  Abortion *is* a perfectly fine way of dealing with an unwanted
>pregnancy, perhaps even "great", if you're desparate, but I don't think
>that many would call it "glorious."

While opinions will differ on the quality attributed to the conscious
act of aborting a fetus, because, after all, there are no absolutes, (I
suppose to some deranged folks abortion is even a glorious activity), I
took exception to "perfectly fine" because it implies a state of
perfection.  Abortion is a resolution to a problem.  It is a reasonable
solution, it is an intellectual right granted to women.  But, it is
fraught with controversy.  It is a grey issue.  It is a moral dilemma.
There are biological and intellectual rights of the fetus to be given a
chance to live, that have been usurped by the societal right to end
problem pregnancies and for population control and the intellectual
right of a woman to make choices about her body.  Therefore, abortion
is not a state of perfection.  In fact, a much more reasonable solution
is to use safe and efective birth control, especially condoms in
conjunction with spermicides, to prevent unwanted pregnancies.  It
avoids the hassles, pain, expense and slight risk of injury of this
medical procedure.  Given that we are not perfect and will make
mistakes, that pregnancies sometimes result from rape and incest and
that some foeti are not viable, abortion is an intellectually sound
solution.

I stated as much in my initial post.  I even stated that *I* have paid
for an abortion.  That Muffy chose to delete the gist of my message and
play word games and attack me personally told me I was barking up the
wrong tree, so to speak.

Aaron L. Hoffmeyer
TR@CBNEA.ATT.COM