The Volokh Conspiracy‘s Todd Zywicki asks for and receives a number of arguments that have actually motivated a transition from a pro-life position to abortion advocacy. Zywicki indicated that he had not encountered folks who had made this transition although he had encountered folks transitioning to the pro-life view.
A few salient examples of some of the responses he received:
Mad Jurist: I’m not sure exactly when I became pro-choice, but as I studied more philosophy, I became more impressed by the notion of epistemic humility. And so I came to believe that in areas where we cannot be sure of where the truth lies, and abortion is almost certainly one of these areas, we should not force ethical decisions on people.
Bobby G: Once it became clear to me that there could be a middle ground–namely, that there could be degrees of moral worth that merit different degrees of protection from harm–the possibility opened that one could be a pro-choicer without opening the floodgates to Peter Singer-style conclusions.
2L_Law_Student: What did it for me was understanding that this right was inherently linked to wider fundamental liberties that are essential to independent action.
PLR: The pro-choice position is based on social policy and not morality; from a moral standpoint the conflict between host and fetus is arguably a toss-up. [Later] A fetus is not a social asset. We can make more.
TwoElle: If a fetus has the same rights as a born child, we could see state interference in women’s health far beyond mere regulation of abortion.
Pete Guither: For me, it was a matter of deciding that the state was the wrong place for the discussion of this moral issue.
Nathan_M: I believe that even if a woman does purposefully get pregnant she still has the right, as every human being has, to decide for herself what will happen to her body, even if that means changing her mind.
Maistre: First, on the ontological question of whether a zygote is a human being, I am persuaded that there is in fact no “magic moment” when human being-ness occurs. Conception is a chemical process that takes time. This undermines one of the supposed virtues of the pro-life position, namely, its clarity.
