Consequently, as I see family values as the
foundation of libertarianism—we are not individuals vs. the state, but families
vs. the state, as individuation of society leads to state power—I cannot support
abortion on demand. I might, in very restricted circumstances, allow it, but not
the many millions of terminations that routinely take place today. I don’t
expect many libertarians to agree with me. But the situation today is entirely
different to that that obtained in the 1950s: no-one gets pregnant accidentally.
With contraceptive pills, morning-after pills, and even the so-called abortion
pill (RU486), I don’t see why abortion is needed. In a free society, people
still have duties as well as rights, and having gone to considerable trouble to
get pregnant—and getting pregnant is not easy—there are duties and consequences
that flow
therefrom.
However, where I do expect libertarians to agree with me is on the right to protest against abortion. The Spiked Online group of journalists appear libertarian in many of their instincts. I remember attending talks by many of these people back in their Marxist days in the early 1990s. Yet Ann Furedi, former Marxist, writer for Spiked Online, and head of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, now opposes the right of opponents of abortion to protest outside clinics! She references J S Mill in her opposition to such protests.
However, where I do expect libertarians to agree with me is on the right to protest against abortion. The Spiked Online group of journalists appear libertarian in many of their instincts. I remember attending talks by many of these people back in their Marxist days in the early 1990s. Yet Ann Furedi, former Marxist, writer for Spiked Online, and head of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, now opposes the right of opponents of abortion to protest outside clinics! She references J S Mill in her opposition to such protests.
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