Women's Rights & Abortion

by Bernard Carman

Submitted Dec 20, 2004

The Proposed Plank

Issues: Due to the continuing disagreement as to when a human life and the right to life begin, there has been much hostility and division among people, including libertarians, on opposing sides of this issue.

Principles: Individual rights should not be denied or abridged on the basis of sex, age, dependency, or location.  Taxpayers should not be forced to pay for other people's abortions, nor should any government or individual force a woman to have an abortion.  It is the right and obligation of the pregnant woman, not the state, to decide the desirability or appropriateness of prenatal testing, Caesaren births, fetal surgery, voluntary surrogacy arrangements, and/or home births.

Solutions: Recognizing that abortion is a very sensitive issue, and people can hold good-faith views on both sides, we therefore take no official position concerning to what extent abortion should be regulated by law and leave the question to each of its members and candidates for their conscience consideration. We support:

1. the abolishment of state-funded and state-mandated abortions;
2. the repeal of all laws that discriminate against women, such as protective labor laws and marriage or divorce laws which deny the full rights of men and women.

Benefits:

1. this does not paint all LP members as pro-choice or pro-life, but allows each LP member to speak to this controversial issue individually;
2. this does not alienate nearly half of America from joining the LP.

Author's Comments

Yes, abortion is a tricky issue! I believe the main reason for this is that the "line" that is often drawn marking the "beginning of life" is arbitrarily determined.

Dave Goree, LP-Buncombe officer and former LPNC ballot director, suggested what I believe to be the best and most scientific (measurable) way to determine where this line should be drawn. He wisely reasoned: since we already have a socially and medically accepted point of death as defined by the termination of brain activity, why not use the same for the definition of when life begins?

Today, scientific medical experts can surely determine when brain activity begins in an unborn baby, which would be the most logical scientific defining line for the beginning of life. This isn't necessarily "perfect", and it doesn't fully address my personal beliefs, but it is at least a scientific approach to the issue.

Regardless, it is also arguable that this issue is not just a religious one, for a life is at stake regardless of the perspective - whether one believes an unborn is a "life" before birth does not change the fact that terminating his existence will eliminate his future of living.

Therefore, the LP's position of, "keeping the government out of the issue," is not a valid solution for "pro-life" libertarians, for it is a matter of life and death! Currently, the pro-life Libertarians in the LP are being painted as "pro-choice", and this is simply not acceptable. How would the "pro-choice" Libertarians feel if the tables were turned?

Furthermore, this issue has been driving away various pro-life libertarians from the party, which is a formula for political suicide for any tiny political party to take such a position. It's a LOSE/LOSE situation, and we need to start thinking WIN/WIN in the LP, or we might as well give up trying to be a political party.

These are the primary thoughts I had in mind while constructing my proposed plank on this issue. It uses much of the same current LP plank language in the Issues & Principles sections, but I changed the solution so that the LP will take no official position on the issue, but rather allow individual Libertarians, and therefore candidates, to speak to this issue according to their own beliefs.

This is a very libertarian approach, by any standard, in which both pro-life and pro-choice Libertarians can agree, and also prevents the party from alienating 50% of American voters.

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