Susuto

I think abortion is a wretched issue to pick to define extreme and moderate left and right viewpoints, but I’ll bite. Here’s my left to right view on where different abortion views sit, with the disclaimer that this is just my perception of America’s ideological compass:

Extreme left: It’s a woman’s body, no one can tell her what to do with it. Don’t allow any restrictions on abortion, ever.
Middle left: There’s no proof that life begins at conception, so restrict late term abortions only.
Moderate left: A ban on abortions other than those performed in the cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother’s health is desirable, but would be ineffective. It wouldn’t take into account the abortions that would inevitably be performed in unsuitable conditions. Furthermore, the effect of some states banning abortions would be a situation where those who can leave the state or the country to get an abortion would be able to, but those who couldn’t afford to do so would not. Abortions should be legal yet performed rarely. Focus on methods of prevention such as sex ed that includes safe sex as well as birth control and abstinence, along with programs that make standard and emergency contraceptives readily available and promote carrying unwanted pregnancies to term and giving the baby up for adoption.
Moderate right: Same as moderate left but ban all abortions except for those related to rape, incest, or danger to the mother, in addition to prevention.
Middle right: Ban abortions except for cases of rape, incest, or the mother’s health being in danger. Promote abstinence only education, as safe sex and emergency contraception encourage premarital sex and are therefore wrong.
Extreme right: Same as middle right, except that mothers with unborn children of rape or incest should carry them to term and give them up for adoption if they’re unwanted.

Really I only refer to the middle right view as “middle” just to distinguish it from extreme. “Not quite as extreme as extreme right” would be more accurate. The same applies to some degree to the middle and extreme left views. Compared to America’s ideology as a whole, I think both the middle and extreme right views are pretty damn extreme, primarily because waiting to have sex until marriage is something that few members of the population practice. Ergo, abstinence only education is unlikely to be effective at preventing premarital sex or abortions.

Personally my view on this one is to go with the middle left approach, and put in place a road map to banning abortion that lays out what prevention measures a state must put in place before it can ban abortion. The logical first step would be to get prevention measures in place to show their effectiveness at lowering the number of abortions performed.

Unfortunately that requires both sides of the abortion debate to give up some ground, something that is unlikely to happen but I hope to see it in my lifetime. Going back to my original point, both sides have their extremists who are so far left or right that they can’t see the middle.