Abortion - Ben Shapiro, Dave Rubin, Michael Shermer, Sam Harris

Political personalities give their take on the hot topic of abortion

[johannesgutenburg]

My advice to people. Stop being a fan boy. Critically analyze each one of these arguments instead of kissing your favorite intellectuals ass.

[jeremygibson]

"the viability of the fetus outside of the body" is an argument from technological availability.

[rodolfolinares]

Even if we grant a fetus all the rights of an adult here is the situation. Everyone has the right to life or not be killed as some people put it. Everyone has the right to choose who can and can not use their body to survive. When a woman is pregnant and wants an abortion, these rights come into direct conflict. How do we resolve this? If a woman does not want a fetus inside her then she should be allowed to have it taken out of her. Whether or not the fetus can or can not survive outside the womb is not the womans concern. The fetus isnt directly murdered, it dies because it needs to be dependent on a womb and people do not have a right to impose their body on someone else. However, if the fetus is viable to live outside the womb on its own and instead of having a C-section and instead you make it so the fetus dies not because of its inability to live outside the womb but ny other means then that should have some form of penalty. It is the best arguement I can think of for pro-choice. Would be interested in any rebuttals

[BoStanfordify]

As usual, Sam has the most rational and well expressed ideas.

[IsChrisHere]

There is a reason why Ben Shapiro only talks about late abortions. He can not make a good secular argument against early abortion. His argument there hinges on the existence of a soul, whereas with late term abortions he can rely on people's moral intuitions. I think the Roe v. Wade rule is a decent one, though necessarily kind of arbitrary.

[jacobkent]

He cut out half of Ben's argument against abortion. He only kept the emotional appeal part of his argument and cut out the part of him listing the development periods of the baby, hence the chart behind him.

[giovannimoreno]

The intellectualism crashes to the ground when you get to Shapiro

[matthewlangley]

would love to see a Shapiro/Harris debate. has it ever happened? Haven't found one yet.

[waynemclaughlin]

From the moment when a woman allows a penis to go inside of her, she is then responsible for her own actions, unless of course if a woman is rape then it is a whole different matter. But to the man who put the penis inside of her he also becomes responsible for his own actions. So out of the act of sexual intercourse if the woman gets pregnant then it becomes an issue for the both of them, as they were both there when they having sexual intercourse with each other....So when I hear a woman say it's my choice and my body it's my decision if I want to have an abortion with out the man having a say in the matter is wrong, considering she gave the consent for a man to inter his penis inside of her....She did not get pregnant on her own, it was no miracle conception for her when she became pregnant....Anyways after all this jibbering jabberish talking, what I have to say is let the decision about the abortion be made with both party involve to make that what if the man for example wanted to become a father and wanted to keep that baby? even though she doesn't want the baby and knowing full well that a fetus can not survive outside of the woman's womb....What then?

[viermidebutura]

if a woman has all the rights to decide if she wants to piss that shit out or to keep it a man should also have the right to decide if he wants to be free or not to be free of the responsibility to support the child

basically if is not ok to force a woman to abort there should be no reason to force the man to pay for the child

[CipherSerpico]

I was watching some clips of Ben Shapiro, and in one of them someone asked about abortion and he said “I don’t support policies that lead to the killing of babies”.
Shortly after that, he admitted to supporting the war in Iraq.
Truly amazing.

[quagmire]

Michael Shermer : Questionable argument.
Sam Harris - Most sensible argument.
Ben Shitpiro -

[xeikai]

I agree with Ben on a lot of things but not on abortion. I like sams argument the best

[jordanw]

I don't think almost anyone supports the horror that Shapiro describes. I think his rant was sadly a strawman.

And even if it wasn't, the point would only be an emotional appeal, not an intellectual one. The point is not how it is done, but is it causing harm. Is it a conscious, feeling, thinking, emotional, intelligent human being yet? I don't think much evidence supports that claim. However, I would be easily persuaded otherwise. It is a powerful emotional appeal, no one wants to see that done, but you must have facts to back it.

[MP-uxdn]

Ben Shapiro kind of leaves his "Facts don't care about your feelings" thing at home on this issue

[ElChe-Ko]

I don't see how the number of cells can change the definition of human being. The substance of such being is the same from the moment of conception to the end of its life.

[keepingupwiththecichlids]

Ben talks way too fast, has a chip on his shoulder and strives to win an argument . On the other hand, Sam Harris is cool, calm and collective, who searches for the truth in an argument.

[marmjtin]

I love how pro life people can't even say their "arguments" (which in reality only consists of emotional non sense) without screaming and getting angry about it. Meanwhile, people who are pro choice generally are intelligent, and actually are willing to have some sort of rational exchange.
Also, this guy (Shapiro) doesn't even know how and abortion works. When are pro life people going to realize that reality is not on their side and that they should let society keep moving forward?

[voss]

Ben seems to think we haven't already more or less determined scientifically, a point of viability. Most abortions are not even happening in the third or second trimester.

[samtichenor]

Obviously, if you kill something, it was alive prior to its being killed. I guess the question is: who gets to decide on the rights of that being. The idea of viability is a farce. We know that babies NEED an INTENSE amount of care...for YEARS, that need for care doesn't negate their human rights. It's a sick practice, and we need to stop pretending like it's okay. It's not okay.