Stephen Kahn
Sep 5, 2018 · 2 min read

I am not a medical provider of any sort. I have had a close family member who had a late term abortion necessary to save her life.

Without disputing any of Malcom Harris’ intelligent and informed points, I would like to say that the long term goal for humans should be to make abortion as safe, legal, and infrequent as possible.

Human evolution has made us dangerous AND kind and caring creatures. Without empathy, we would kill each other with little restraint. My ancestors were Eastern European Jews, and they had experiences with charismatic leaders such as Hitler and Stalin, who murdered millions of people with little or no justification. Mao Zedong (and ally of Stalin) had legitimate insights about the danger of overpopulation in China, but in his zeal to reduce population, he used abortion as a form of mass murder.

We are programmed by the better impulses of evolution to protect life, including babies just born and not yet born.

Here is a thought experiment.

Consider a child one day after birth. Most of us consider killing that child murder. At times this has been part of human culture.

Most societies in today’s world condemn and discourage killing of infants.

On the other hand, consider killing a fetus on day before birth. Most of this would also consider this murder.

Humans are programmed by evolution to seek sexual gratification. In the past, birth control was difficult or impossible to achieve, and often prohibited.

As much as possible, I would argue, that humans should be allowed to engage in ethical sexual behavior (consenting adults avoiding STDs and unwanted pregnancies) and at the same time our long term goal should be to avoid abortion should be https://nifla.org/hillary-clinton-thought-abortion-safe-legal-rare-two-no-longer-apply/

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