In my last post I argue that a person can believe in libertarian principles and still reach a pro-life policy position because of the factual question of whether the unborn child (or fetus) should be recognized as a person with rights to freedom.
Actually, it's not so much a factual question as ethical one. We know that the unborn are alive, we just don't know (or we don't agree) that they should be entitled to the same rights as other humans.
Writing the other post, I thought of one attractive pro-choice libertarian argument: we know that we should maximize the freedom of adult women, however, the rights of the unborn are debatable. Faced with this ambiguity, it makes sense for Libertarians to be pro-choice because restricting abortion necessarily restricts the freedom of pregnant women, but only potentially denies the rights to the unborn.
Of course, some if not most people will decide the question of whether the unborn have rights resolutely one way of the other. Once a person resolves that the unborn is human and entitled to the rights of all other people, then libertarian principles can just as easily lead ( actually I think they compel) that person to become pro-life.
Furthermore, a libertarian who cannot resolve the issue of whether or when the unborn are entitled to rights, should recognize that, the restricting a pregnant woman's right to abortion is only a slight reduction of freedom, while abortion is total denial of rights to the unborn. Thus, a fence-sitting libertarian must lean very heavily in the direction of no rights for the unborn before he can use that ambiguity as a justification to hold pro-choice views.
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