{"id":24189,"date":"2012-12-09T15:58:02","date_gmt":"2012-12-09T20:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=24189"},"modified":"2012-12-10T10:56:37","modified_gmt":"2012-12-10T15:56:37","slug":"three-guesses-how-pro-aborts-celebrate-human-rights-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/three-guesses-how-pro-aborts-celebrate-human-rights-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Three guesses how pro-aborts celebrate Human Rights Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

\"\"<\/a>Tomorrow is the United Nations\u2019 International Human Rights Day<\/a>, which is ostensibly dedicated to \u201cthe full enjoyment of all human rights by everyone everywhere.\u201d So what better time for abortionistas to desecrate the concept?<\/p>\n

At RH Reality Check, Pathfinder International\u2019s Purnima Mane complains<\/a> that \u201cthere are still those around the world who think that reproductive rights are not human rights,\u201d equating such people with flat-earthers:<\/p>\n

For me, it is a simple concept: every person should be able to make decisions about her or his body. I see that in the young women and men Pathfinder International<\/a> works with every day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course. Everyone deserves the full, unconditional right to decide whether to reproduce, \u201cmake decisions about her or his body,\u201d or use whatever (non-abortive) birth control drugs she wishes. Nobody denies that the 17-year-old Indian girl Mane talks about should \u201chave the right to stay in school, delay marriage, and then choose if, when, and how often to have children\u201d and \u201cfeel empowered to negotiate condom use with her partner.\u201d No one believes that she should \u201cface death during pregnancy due to lack to maternal health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem, of course, is that along with those genuinely noble goals, Mane and her organization sneak in two additional and very different propositions – the right to kill one\u2019s offspring and the right to have someone else provide birth control for you – under the \u201crights\u201d umbrella (Mane doesn\u2019t mention abortion in her post, but Pathfinder\u2019s website makes clear<\/a> it\u2019s a part of her definition of \u201creproductive rights\u201d). This is the rhetorical equivalent of a traveler putting someone else\u2019s bag with her own luggage and then, when the rightful owner dares to notice and call her out, accusing him<\/em> of trying to steal her<\/em> stuff.<\/p>\n

We have discussed the real meaning of rights<\/a> ad nauseam, sacrificing the word\u2019s substantive meaning and moral usefulness to make it mere shorthand for an ever-expanding Christmas list of things certain people feel entitled to. So here let\u2019s take the next step and consider how they made the switch. It all traces back to the Progressive movement of the early twentieth century, and it was part of a broader effort to uproot the nation\u2019s allegiance to her founding principles and transform the relationship between the individual and the state.<\/p>\n

The Heritage Foundation\u2019s Edward Walton provides a useful overview<\/a> of leading Progressive academic John Dewey\u2019s work on redefining freedom:<\/p>\n

What the Founders called liberty Dewey dismisses as a mere formal freedom, an essentially empty idea. If we are to truly speak of freedom, formal freedom must give way to real, effective freedom.<\/p>\n

Effective freedom requires two preconditions: (1) the necessary material means to fulfill one\u2019s desires, and (2) developed mental capabilities allowing one to use foresight and make proper decisions without being subjected to baser desires.<\/p>\n

The implications of this redefinition of freedom are momentous. Men and women are no longer free by nature\u2014they must be made free. Freedom, as Dewey wrote in Liberalism and Social Action, is \u201csomething to be achieved.\u201d And it requires not only material means but also enlightened decisions.<\/p>\n

Hence, to use a contemporary example, the freedom to use the Internet means nothings unless you have access to the Internet and possess the \u201cpowers of intelligent self-control\u201d to make intelligent use of it.<\/p>\n

Building on his redefinition of freedom, Dewey argues that we must reconstruct society to allow for attainment of effective freedom in \u201cThe Future of Liberalism<\/a>.\u201d Here Dewey embraces \u201cthe idea of historic relativity\u201d and translates it into a methodology\u2014a \u201ccontinuous reconstruction\u201d of vast experiments to socialize individuals, to make them more cooperative. The ultimate aim is \u201cfull freedom of the human spirit and of individuality.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thomas West elaborates<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In this view, freedom is not a gift of God or nature. It is a product of human making, a gift of the state. Man is a product of his own history, through which he collectively creates himself. He is a social construct. Since human beings are not naturally free, there can be no natural rights or natural law. Therefore, Dewey also writes, “Natural rights and natural liberties exist only in the kingdom of mythological social zoology.”<\/p>\n

Since the Progressives held that nature gives man little or nothing and that everything of value to human life is made by man, they concluded that there are no permanent standards of right [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The Founders’ supposed failure to recognize the crucial role of society led the Progressives to disparage the Founders’ insistence on limited government. The Progressive goal of politics is freedom, now understood as freedom from the limits imposed by nature and necessity. They rejected the Founders’ conception of freedom as useful for self-preservation for the sake of the individual pursuit of happiness. For the Progressives, freedom is redefined as the fulfillment of human capacities, which becomes the primary task of the state.<\/p>\n

To this end, Dewey writes, “the state has the responsibility for creating institutions under which individuals can effectively realize the potentialities that are theirs.” So although “it is true that social arrangements, laws, institutions are made for man, rather than that man is made for them,” these laws and institutions “are not means for obtaining something for individuals, not even happiness. They are means of creating individuals\u2026. Individuality in a social and moral sense is something to be wrought out.” “Creating individuals” versus “protecting individuals”: this sums up the difference between the Founders’ and the Progressives’ conception of what government is for.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here\u2019s a crazy thought: maybe using the occasion to educate people on what real human rights are and why they matter even within the womb is a more faithful way to celebrate International Human Rights Day than trying to promote and romanticize the killing of the world\u2019s tiniest humans?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Universal human rights, but not for everyone. Makes sense?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":24190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThree guesses how pro-aborts celebrate Human Rights Day! - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/three-guesses-how-pro-aborts-celebrate-human-rights-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three guesses how pro-aborts celebrate Human Rights Day! - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Universal human rights, but not for everyone. 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