Why the Right to Abortion Is Sacrosanct

De: Ben Bayer

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Where did defenders of Roe v. Wade go wrong? Why did they lose the moral high ground? What does it take to defend abortion rights in the United States?

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade because it claimed that “a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions.” But if the intellectual tradition the American founders drew on was the doctrine of individual rights, then it is relevant that this doctrine has logical implications that even they might not have grasped. In that respect, the original philosophy of the founders supports an absolute individual right to abortion.

To defend abortion as an inviolable right, it has to be understood as a claim of uncompromising justice. The hard-hitting essays in this book make that case.

Challenging both defenders of Roe and its conservative critics, Ben Bayer lays out a rational, secular defense of the right to abortion based on Ayn Rand’s philosophy. Bayer shows how the principles of Rand’s individualist ethics enshrine a woman’s right to her own happiness, without limitation by any competing “rights” of the fetus.

Can the controversy over abortion be settled by scientific facts alone? No, Bayer explains, because philosophical reasoning is needed to interpret the relevance of the science.

Ultimately the right to abortion—which Bayer argues should be legal until birth—allows a woman to protect what’s sacred about life: her own life and future.