Most abortion debates fail to advance the conversation because the two sides aren't arguing on the same grounds — one side makes a moral or religious case, the other a case from women's rights; so they talk past each other. Kerry Baldwin argues that there's a better approach. In this FreedomFest debate with Michael Shermer, Baldwin makes her case. Shermer approaches abortion from a secular humanist perspective, making a moral-pragmatic case for pro-choice that centers the lived reality and full moral status of women. Baldwin, though a professing Christian, does not argue from religious or moral grounds. Instead, she argues from a natural law, libertarian legal-rights, and free-market perspective. Both are critical of the conventional pro-life argument, and both believe that reducing unwanted pregnancies through free-market solutions is the practical path forward. What they disagree on is whether a consistent defense of women's rights can stop short of recognizing fetal self-ownership. Rather than relitigating the familiar culture-war framing, this debate advances the liberty conversation by asking what libertarian principles actually require and what the net benefit is for women's rights more broadly.
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