John Werth
2 min readMay 19, 2022

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Just a few quibbles:

You're good at pulling out carefully managed examples. But that doesn't prove anything. So, if I recall, Planned Parenthood's numbers show that percentage of abortions performed on Black women is only slightly larger than the Black population percentage in general. Most of that presumably has roots in socioeconomic factors.

And yes, Planned Parenthood donates to politicians. The conservative movement and Republican Party, on the other hand, have an entire nationwide infrastructure dedicated to anti-abortion politicians and judges. So yes, both sides do it, but it's not equal in any reasonable sense. Proportion matters.

You're very glib on a lot of things. The majority of Americans and existing SCOTUS precedent holds that abortion should be legal in at least some circumstances. The most recent Pew poll was that 61% believe abortion should be legal in some or all cases, vs. 39% illegal in all or most. 20% were for no restrictions, and only 8% illegal in all cases.

This has remained steady for decades, despite an unceasing barrage of attacks from anti-abortion forces. It's been a singular focus (OK, gay-bashing is popular too, but definitely second place) for my whole life, and for all intents and purposes, no one has been convinced.

So you've ground out what, 3000 words here? It all comes down to:

"I believe abortion is wrong and should be banned. I don't care that I'm taking the minority position with regard to public opinion: this is a matter for me and my allies to decide, to hell with everyone else, it's not a matter for democracy. I don't care about SCOTUS precedent, and I'm happy with the right wing spending vast amounts of time and money packing the court to overturn that precedent.

"I will now present vast reams of cherry-picked or carefully structured examples to make my point, which will get a big amen from the people who agree with me and be ignored or refuted by everyone else. I will call people who disagree with me homicidal racists. I'll quote a bunch of conservative judges as if that proves anything. I'll pull out examples and play proof by anecdote.

"But in the end, the whole thing just comes down to this: I don't like abortion, I think they should be illegal, and I don't think anyone who doesn't agree with me should get a voice in the decision."

Arguments shouldn't be judged by the pound. All you need to address is the sentence above. Everything else is just noise.

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John Werth
John Werth

Written by John Werth

Musician and conductor, repairer of woodwinds, owner of dogs, band director, lapsed mathematician, and scribbler of thoughts on humor, politics or both at once.

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