Rex Kerr
2 min readAug 4, 2022

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Using lots of capital letters does not avoid the need to consider how to handle exceptional cases.

Why would someone with access to free state-funded abortion ever give birth only to then abandon the baby in a dumpster? And yet, very rarely, it happens.

(Aside: a good deal of this this is caused by post-partum depression, which is exacerbated by our modern lifestyles without extensive support by close friends and family ("tribe"), and by our generally poor-to-atrocious attention to mental health issues.)

If we have an opinion about that beyond, "Yeah, whatever, it's her child; she can do what she wants," then we also might have an opinion about a not-yet-born but fully developed baby. Like maybe the doctor should get a say, or something like that.

This is exactly the problem with extreme positions. You can't make a position less extreme by shouting (i.e. all caps), and you can't make an argument about rare cases by saying stuff like "You must think women are real idiots" as if the rare case is the usual case.

If you hold the position that in the very rare case that she wants to, a woman has the right to terminate a viable at-term but unborn baby instead of having it delivered, and can override a doctor's opinion to the contrary, then say so. If you don't think so, then say that but be open to the possibility that some people do have an opinion that is that extreme, and realize that Dancova is (apparently) talking about them.

Dancova also has a particular personal preference for what the regulations should be, but I am specifically addressing the issue of extremism (as were you, because you declared, incorrectly, that he had described an extreme position that people do not actually hold).

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Rex Kerr
Rex Kerr

Written by Rex Kerr

One who rejoices when everything is made as simple as possible, but no simpler. Sayer of things that may be wrong, but not so bad that they're not even wrong.

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