> The only way to live peacefully with anti-abortion people is to simply give up and let them ban abortion. This obviously is unacceptable to pro-choice people. I can make similar arguments about many other moral positions, such as whether women should be allowed to drive or not.
Well, I agree with your general point that people with an absolutist view of abortion may not be able to live together. However, for most, I think the issue is somewhere in the middle, and may not be the highest priority:
- you may be anti-abortion but agree that in some cases abortion is useful/necessary, e.g. for medical reasons
- you may be pro-choice but agree to a limit on abortions in the final weeks of pregnancy(rights of the woman vs rights of the unborn get very blurry there)
Abortion may be an important issue to you but not the most important. An anti-abortion person may be able to compromise living with legal abortion, as long as they are given some small compromise, and as long as their other issues are resolved to their satisfaction(e.g. economy). A pro-choice person may be able to compromise living with illegal abortion if given some compromise for the most extreme exceptions(e.g. rape, medical), as long as their more important issues are settled to their satisfaction.
I believe most people do not hold an absolutist view in earnest, even if they express one publicly. There are plenty of reasons why that is - it's much easier to give a voice to the absolutist view, it's a simple soundbite("abortion is murder!"), it's easy to "recruit" people by othering the opposition - "it's only idiot conservatives that want to ban abortion, no smart reasonable person would stop women from having a choice".
I would like to believe that, given the opportunity of honest discussion, people would agree that finding a compromise is best for their community. I believe the underlying issue behind many such social rifts is that the community cohesion has eroded away, with people split into tribes and into an us vs them mentality. This means that even if they are amenable to compromise, it's likely to happen only through members of their own community, as they see the rest as "others" who are not worth their time(examples here are a plenty, hopefully I don't need to give any..)
Well, I agree with your general point that people with an absolutist view of abortion may not be able to live together. However, for most, I think the issue is somewhere in the middle, and may not be the highest priority:
- you may be anti-abortion but agree that in some cases abortion is useful/necessary, e.g. for medical reasons
- you may be pro-choice but agree to a limit on abortions in the final weeks of pregnancy(rights of the woman vs rights of the unborn get very blurry there)
Abortion may be an important issue to you but not the most important. An anti-abortion person may be able to compromise living with legal abortion, as long as they are given some small compromise, and as long as their other issues are resolved to their satisfaction(e.g. economy). A pro-choice person may be able to compromise living with illegal abortion if given some compromise for the most extreme exceptions(e.g. rape, medical), as long as their more important issues are settled to their satisfaction.
I believe most people do not hold an absolutist view in earnest, even if they express one publicly. There are plenty of reasons why that is - it's much easier to give a voice to the absolutist view, it's a simple soundbite("abortion is murder!"), it's easy to "recruit" people by othering the opposition - "it's only idiot conservatives that want to ban abortion, no smart reasonable person would stop women from having a choice".
I would like to believe that, given the opportunity of honest discussion, people would agree that finding a compromise is best for their community. I believe the underlying issue behind many such social rifts is that the community cohesion has eroded away, with people split into tribes and into an us vs them mentality. This means that even if they are amenable to compromise, it's likely to happen only through members of their own community, as they see the rest as "others" who are not worth their time(examples here are a plenty, hopefully I don't need to give any..)