"I believe that the Declaration of Independence says 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,'" he said. "Whenever someone forces me to do something against my will, they're infringing upon my freedoms and my liberties." (Maine Governor Paul LaPage (R,) in an article published by TPM online. In it, LePage referred to his support of "right to work" legislation that protects the rights of individuals to refuse to join a union.)
Finally, a concise definition of the meaning of liberty by a conservative.
Abortion then, must be a sacrament, for by that simple definition it is obvious that being forced to bear a pregnancy and childbirth if I don't want to...is an OBVIOUS, need I say it again, infringement on my liberty. If women do not have a right to terminate a pregnancy, then there are NO civil liberties or Liberty for women. Reproductive freedom for women is essential before any contemplation of the more mundane aspects of Liberty, like freedom to speak or to assemble, or to prosper can even begin to matter. In this way, women differ from men. Women have a Meta Freedom (reproductive) that must be met, an Alpha Condition for Freedom, that must be met before any other civil right or liberty has meaning. Men, by biology, have met that Meta Freedom: they cannot be forced to be pregnant; they can walk away from pregnancy and children. Women cannot. Either way they must Choose, so they must be Free to Choose. Everything else follows from that. Any OTHER position on abortion is oppositional to the conservative ethos of personal liberty and personal responsibility. Here is their philosophical conundrum and it will skewer them sooner or later. They will be forced to admit that their concept of liberty is not the same as their concept of women's liberty, and that, in the end, men will make that decision.
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