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Comment by coldtea | Hacker News Reader

They mean the issue of abortion (whether pro or against). "Change the mind" they mean from its current position (whether pro- or anti- abortion).

Even if we assume that "it's a personal choice" is some kind of natural/god-given/obvious default (which historically it hasn't been), we'd still to work to change the minds of people who think otherwise...

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I'm a pretty liberal person in a very liberal area, but nobody has ever tried to convince me to change my mind to be pro-abortion. I'm in favor of letting people make their own healthcare decisions of course but to be actively pro-abortion seems like some hyper niche position.

I think agitating publically on a pro-abortion position is rare and considered unseemly by most liberals. However I do believe there are many situations where people will find themselves under pro-abortion pressure.

For example, I know many Icelanders are quite proud of how they have 'solved' the problem of Down Syndrome in their country by good prenatal testing. I strongly suspect women in countries like this face tremendous pro-abortion pressure when they consider carrying these children to term and welcoming them into their families.

If anti-abortion advocates were just advocating for their right to try to convince people to not get abortion and apply their own social pressure (not backed by the force of the state) then I'd have no objections. I mean I find the idea of using that right objectionable but it is obviously their right.

abortion has been a personal choice for most of humanity. only relatively recently have social mores become coercive like this, on which foucault wrote a whole treatise.

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