re: #126 Mattand

I’m not sure what I’m falling for. Ryan and the other pro lifers want to ban abortion because their religions tell them that a fertilized egg is a human being and that a woman is simply an ambulatory incubator.

Exactly, and as long as you humor the terms of their argument as relevant to the discussion you’re allowing them to define the terms of the debate. “Life” is a deliberate dodge, a smokescreen designed to obfuscate any discussion of sentience, self-awareness, the very criteria we use at the other end of the spectrum to determine when personhood ends a la Terri Schiavo.

When they deny any exception for rape or incest the pro-lifers are just being consistent within their own ideological framework. It’s time for us to be as well. When we get enraged and argue over the heartlessness of not allowing exceptions for rape we lose sight of whole battlefield. When Ryan describes Romney’s stance as ‘a good step in the right direction’ what he means is that it’s the thin edge of the wedge. He’s saying that all the time and effort spent fighting his no exceptions stance had the effect of validating this insidious “compromise.” He’s gloating over the fact that his opposition lost sight of their own argument and instead argued the issue in his terms simply because those terms were so outrageous.