1.  Benign Sovereignty (also known as bodily autonomy):

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Everyone has the innate right to sovereignty over their own self, as long as they are benign to others.  This sovereignty includes autonomy over one's body.  No one may make decisions about your body except you.

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Benign Sovereignty is a natural law principle, meaning that it's true regardless of what society believes.  Natural law is woven into the fabric of reality, and exists as truth, no matter what codes have (or haven't) been proclaimed by "legislators.'

 

Here it is, formalized in the Law of the Earth:

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All human rights
are derived from one:
The right to Benign Sovereignty.  

Everyone is entitled to
sovereignty (full freedom of choice)
as long as they are benign (not doing harm).

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A sovereign being

may make any choice,

perform any action,

or refrain from any action,

as long as they are not infringing

upon the rights of anyone else.

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Benign sovereignty can be extrapolated into a series of specific rights, which are enumerated in the Bill of Human Rights.  First among them is the right to Physical Integrity:

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To be physically Whole,

free from all forms of assault,

unless violating the rights of another;

free from non-consensual sexual contact;

and free from non-consensual anatomical alteration,

except in cases of diagnosed medical emergency

in which consent cannot be discerned.

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In other words, your body is yours, and you get to decide what to do with it, and nobody has the right to harm you or make changes to your body without your permission.

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"So if women have bodily autonomy / sovereignty, does that mean abortion is always legal to do?"

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Not so fast.  We aren't just talking about one body - we're talking about two.  A fetus is not an organ of the body carrying them - they are a distinct body, with a distinct brain, a distinct nervous system, and a distinct mind (and possibly soul).

 

What about their bodily autonomy? 

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"But womens' rights are paramount!"

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Sure.  And:

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A woman who is aborted will never vote.

She'll never earn as much money as a man.

She'll never get to serve in the army.

She'll never get to explore her sexuality.

She'll never get to march in an LGBT pride parade.

She'll never get to say "yes" or "no" to a sexual advance.

She'll never get to walk down an alley at night without feeling afraid.

She'll never get to break the glass ceiling.

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The logic behind the slogan of "My Body, My Choice" breaks down (with regards to abortion) when we realize that there are two bodies in question, and only one of them is the person chanting the slogan.

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"So you're not pro-choice?"

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We are absolutely pro-choice.  But we believe in respecting everyone's right to choose - including that of partially developed people.

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"Nonsense!  Fetuses aren't people!  They don't deserve the same rights as born persons!"

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That may be true.  Not the same rights.  But... some rights?  Some ethical consideration?  Not necessarily the same as a born person, but still greater than zero?

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Does it have to be binary?  All or nothing?

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"I don't buy that.  Fetuses are NOTHING.  They don't count - AT ALL.  Until they're born, they have as much value as the gum stuck to the bottom of my shoe!"

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If you believe that, then you aren't on the side of moral progress, and you should not call yourself "progressive."

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Progress is about expanding the Circle of Rights to include more types of living beings - and progressives are people who want to do this.

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Are you progressive?

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​​​2.  The Circle of Rights

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In recent centuries, one defining aspect of human progress has been the gradual incorporation of more and more types of living beings into the ethical sphere.  In other words, as history progresses, our society recognizes an ever-expanding range of Life as holding ethical weight.

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A long time ago, only kings and "nobles" were considered to have rights, and everyone else existed only to serve the upper classes.  But then the common folk rose up to demand rights, and got them.

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Then the sphere expanded to include women.

And other races.

And other nationalities.

And other religions.

And other sexual orientations.

 

One by one, more living beings became "worthy of rights."  (Note:  they were always worthy of rights, but society-at-large was just too ignorant to recognize it).

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Today, animal rights are the emerging frontier in humanity's journey toward a compassionate society.  Great strides are now being made in every aspect of human relationships with animals.  People are recognizing that living beings whom they didn't believe had feelings and consciousness, indeed have feelings and consciousness.  And with these, of course, come rights - i.e. entitlements to ethical consideration.

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If you believe that animals deserve ethical consideration (and we do), then it logically follows that partially developed humans do too.

 

After all, if consciousness is the deciding factor in determining whether an entity has rights (and if so, what rights they have, and how much those rights weigh against the rights of others), then any being with consciousness must be entitled to some degree of ethical consideration.

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Consciousness = Entitlement to Ethical Consideration. 

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Write that down.

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"OK, maybe fetuses deserve some rights, or "ethical consideration", but what about the mother?  Doesn't the one set of rights contradict the other set?"

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Yes, and that's why no one should take a black-and-white position on this.  There is a lot of nuance here, if we really want to be accurate.

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3.  Non-Binary Value

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First, everyone should be able to agree, no matter which label you identify with, that a developing fetus deserves some degree of ethical consideration.  Even if you believe the rights of the pregnant mother are more important than those of the fetus, you can't say the latter amount to zero.  It can't be completely binary. They're not rocks.  They're living beings, and we can't just ignore that.

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As you may have deduced, principles #1 and #2 appear to contradict each other.  A pregnant woman has the right to bodily autonomy... but this runs up against, and often clashes with, the rights of the living being she's carrying. 

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Clearly a fetus is not the same being as the mother - they are two distinct beings.  They have two distinct bodies, nervous systems, brains, and minds. 

 

What about the partially-developed person inside?

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Does he/she have the right to bodily autonomy as well?

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If "choice" is what's important, then what about his/hers.

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And it seems that we have an ethical dilemma on our hands.  We have two sets of rights that conflict.  So what do we do?

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Even if we can't arbitrate the answer just yet, we can still acknowledge that some sort of compromise is in order.  The values of the two sets of rights are not binary.  In other words, the answer is not going to be "all of one and none of the other."  It's not going to be 0 and 1.  Neither "all for the pregnant woman", nor "all for the fetus." It will be some sort of mixture. 

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Most people, even adamant pro-choicers, acknowledge that there's something wrong with electively aborting a baby 1 day before the due date, "just because."

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Birth is not a binary line dividing consciousness from non-consciousness.  Being born does not magically bestow consciousness.  A late-term fetus has a fully functioning nervous system, and is capable of perception.  

 

And likewise, most people acknowledge that there's something wrong with telling a teenage girl who was raped by an alcoholic family member that she can't abort the zygote, 1 day after fertilization, and will go to prison for 99 years if she tries.

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Most people - the vast majority - acknowledge that there is a spectrum here.

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4.  The Spectrum of Consciousness

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The answer (or at least part of it) is that the ethical weight of a being is determined by how far along that being's consciousness has developed.  The more conscious (and the more complex the mind), the more ethical consideration they deserve.

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This is the reason why a cow holds more ethical weight than a gnat.  It's not because the cow is physically bigger, but rather because she/he is more complex, and thus has a more intense and intricate experience of the world. 

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Likewise, the spectrum applies to a fetus in development.  The further along they are, the more consciousness they have - and thus, the more entitled to ethical consideration.  A fully-developed fetus at the end of gestation clearly has more consciousness than one in the middle of gestation, who in turn has more than one in the beginning. 

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Because there's a spectrum of how conscious a fetus is, there's also a spectrum of ethical weight.  And this means that the ethics of abortion change with the degree of fetal development.

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A single-celled organism, even if its species is human, does not have the same perceptive ability as a person (or a fetus) with a developed nervous system.  Even if a single-celled person holds ethical weight (due to species membership), the ability to feel pain and suffering has not yet developed (at least not to the extent of someone with a nervous system).   

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​The line between conscious and non-conscious is difficult to place.  There is no absolute distinction.  Consciousness, in this case, is not 0 vs. 1, like a computer.  It's a continuum.  So a fetus in an intermediate or early stage of development may have some level of consciousness.  Or they might not.  Be we can't be sure.  And since we're not sure, it's probably better to err on the side of caution, and assume that they do indeed have some form of consciousness.  So, even an early stage fetus deserves some ethical consideration, even if it's just a little bit. 

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5.  Variance in the weight of rights

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Not all rights are equal.  Some rights are more important than others.  For instance, the right to freedom is more important than the right to a library card.  The right to drive a car is less important than the right to not be hit by one - regardless of "who's" the driver and "who's" the pedestrian.  The "who" is not what matters.  What matters is the type of rights in question.

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And the most important right of all is Life.  Without that one, you can't exercise any others. 

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As we stated in principle #1, the only time one being's agency (i.e. free will) can be lawfully overruled is if it conflicts with the rights of another.  And since there is more than one living being involved in an abortion, we have a conflict between the agency of two beings, so no matter what we do, SOMEONE's agency is going to be overruled.

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So what can we do?

 

We can look at the things each being wants to use their agency for.

 

The partially-developed person in the womb would use their agency to stay alive.  The big person carrying him/her would use it to do something other than stay alive.
 

No matter what that other thing is, can it ever be as important as life itself?  

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"That makes sense."

 

For this reason, the truth leans toward the side of Life.  Life should be the general rule, and abortion should be the exception - not the other way around.

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"But some abortions are medically necessary.  If the pregnancy continues, it would jeopardize the life of the mother.  In those cases, doesn't the mother have just as strong (and possibly stronger) of a claim than the fetus?"

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Yes.  Medically necessary abortions are different from elective ones.  They have a different ethical nature, and should be treated differently by law.

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In summary, each side of the debate has a strong claim.  Generally speaking, the type of rights applicable to the fetus are more weighty than the type applicable to the woman carrying him/her, because Life is more important than any life choice.  But the ethical weight of fetuses themselves may be less than that of a fully born person.  We still have a spectrum to deal with here.  

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So now we've got some principles to work with.  These will be our foundations as we work out the details - which we'll begin now.

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1.  Medically-necessary abortions belong to the category of Self-Defense, and are therefore ethical.

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When a pregnancy endangers the life/health of the mother, then the type of right that applies is no longer merely that of autonomy and agency, but rather life itself, which puts it on par with the right applicable to the fetus. 

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Since the fetus threatens the life of the mother, the mother has the right to self-defense. 

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"Self-defense?  What do you mean?"

If a robber breaks into your house and threatens to kill you, you have the right to defend yourself, by doing it to him first.  Merely stealing is not enough to justify killing in response - but if you have a legitimate reason to believe he might kill you (i.e., he's pointing a gun at you), then you have the right to take his life before he takes yours. 

 

Likewise, if a pregnancy threatens the life of its carrier, the carrier has the right to defend herself as well.

Medically necessary abortions may be performed at any stage of pregnancy.

However...

2.  If a doctor makes a determination of medical necessity, he or she should be prepared to back that up.

 

It's not unreasonable to expect the doctor who makes the determination of medical necessity to put his or her professional name on that determination, by documenting it as such, and filing it, along with whatever evidence he or she used for making the determination, and signing it, under penalty of perjury.

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​The documentation should include the medical diagnosis of the condition that the mother has, the evidence for that condition, and why the doctor believes continuing the pregnancy constitutes an unreasonable risk to her life.

 

It should also include a sworn affidavit stating that the procedure was, to the best of his/her knowledge, indispensable to the preservation of the life and health of the mother, and that, without it, she would have faced undue risk of death or serious physical injury. 

This documentation process should not be required prior to the procedure, since "time is of the essence" in any medical issue.  But after he or she performs the abortion and the patient is stable, this file should be created.
 

Reviews may be conducted by any licensed medical professional, and if evidence of dishonesty or continual incompetence is found, the normal institutional deliberations should be followed (in other words, however a jurisdiction deals with faulty doctors, that process should be used).

 

A doctor who repeatedly makes faulty determinations should face penalties, up to and including the suspension or revocation of their medical license.  And in cases of outright lying/forgery and fabrication of evidence, criminal penalties equivalent to that of perjury are appropriate.  

3.  In cases of fundamentally non-viable fetuses, the determination belongs with the mother.  

 

If there is medical proof that the baby will be born non-viable (i.e. will never be able to live without staying hooked up to machines, or will otherwise have a very brief, horrific, painful existence), then the determination is for the mother to make.

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After all, if we truly care about the fetus, then subjecting them to a painful and cruel existence (that results in an early death anyway) might be worse than abortion.  Might be.  We don't know - no one really does - and it should be up to the mother, the person with the most intimate knowledge of them.

 

And again, the doctor must create a file, in the same manner as in #2, explaining what condition the fetus has, and how he/she (the doctor) knows the fetus has that condition (i.e. evidence), and why he or she believes that condition will prevent any chance at viability.

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Now let's talk about elective abortion.

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With medically necessary abortion, the right in question is the right to life, whereas with elective abortion, it's the right to self-determination.  While both rights are important, the former is weightier than the latter.

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Elective abortion can be further subdivided into two types:  pregnancies arising from consensual and non-consensual intercourse. 

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4.  Unwanted pregnancy arising from having been a rape victim reflects no moral failing or mistake on the mother's part.

 

A rape victim should not be held culpable for her unintended pregnancy.  The public accountability rule for elective abortions (see above) should be waived for her.

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"But it's not the fetus's fault!  Why hold a fetus culpable for the crimes of their father?"

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It's still a better choice not to abort, and we encourage any woman in this situation to have the child, and the community should mobilize its resources, both social and economic, to persuade her to voluntarily choose not to abort.

 

However, it's not fair or just, to force someone into such a major life-alteration for something that she didn't even have control over.  It's one thing if she chose to have sex, and chose to take the risk of pregnancy - but quite another if she was raped.

 

While abortion is an ugly thing, it's even more grotesque to force a rape victim to carry a reminder of her rape inside her, if the trauma is too intense.  In such scenarios, we are forced to choose between two horrible things, and no choice is going to be 100% right.  We have to do the best we can, and in this case, it should be her choice.  

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However...

 

5.  If rape is claimed as a justification for elective abortion, then there needs to be a police report. 
 

This principle should not be abused.  A woman claiming justification for abortion due to rape should be willing to back up her accusation.  If the intercourse was truly non-consensual, then a report should be filed.  After all, there is a rapist on the loose, and he could victimize more people if he's not stopped. 

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"But some women don't report their rape, due to shame, disorientation, or the intimidating nature of police departments, which are usually mostly male, and insensitive to the needs of recently victimized women.  Some police departments don't take women seriously.  In some backwards countries, woman are even punished for their own rapes, and going to the police is dangerous!"

 

Any jurisdiction wishing to enforce this rule must provide a crisis-response-trained, all-female task force within its police department, for the purpose of receiving and handling such reports (so that the victim does not feel intimidated out of reporting, due to an insensitive, male-dominated police department).

 

If the jurisdiction does not provide this, then it may not require a police report for abortions due to rape, and a rape victim may have an abortion without filing a report.

"Hey, won't this result in false-rape allegations against men, since women will have an incentive to lie about being raped, in order to qualify for the abortion?"

If you have penetrative sex with a woman, you're taking the risk of creating the demand for an abortion.  You're taking that risk willingly.  So you better be sure about what you're doing, and whom you're doing it with.  You're just as responsible as she is, and if she's going to be in an ethically and legally precarious situation, so should you.

"So a dramatic increase in false-rape allegations is OK?"

Maybe you shouldn't be sticking your dick in people you don't trust.

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"What about the child?  Will you take care of them?  Or do you just care about them when they're in the womb, and don't give a crap about them once they're born?"

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7.  Jurisdictions wishing to enforce the prohibition on elective abortions must provide adequate care for mothers and their children.

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This includes prenatal, natal, and postnatal care, full reasonable healthcare coverage for both mother and child up until the age of majority (18 years in the USA). 

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It also includes housing and food for mothers who can't afford it - all the way up until the child reaches the age of majority.

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A jurisdiction that does not provide this care may not enforce the prohibition on elective abortion after 6 weeks.

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That is the Abortion Determent Safety Net, or ADSN.  

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The ADSN can be provided at the local, or state, or national level - or any combination of those - but the bottom line is, whoever is doing the enforcing against abortion, must simultaneously be doing the alternative-providing.

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"But... that sounds like socialism!"

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Poverty and abortion go hand-in-hand.  The ADSN removes all excuses.  If poverty does not exist, it can no longer provide a believable excuse to terminate a pregnancy.

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