The Straw Man Argument in the Abortion debate: Ignoratio elenchi

 Recently, on Twitter, a woman I follow, who is intelligent and liberal posted a Tweet using the argument that a woman's right to abortion is all about her being able to control her own body and what happens to it.

While I believe in abortion rights, this argument has always struck me as specious. The woman who argues abortion is only about a woman being about to control what happens to her own body is clearly ignoring what right to lifers are  are saying, which is there are two bodies involved in this case, not just the woman's body. What the right to lifer said is what is being done to another body, the one inside the woman, who at some point, most people would agree is close enough to being a human being to have some rights. The "I control what happens to my own body" ignores that argument as if it doesn't even exist.

6 weeks

The Original tweet from Irishrygirl was: "Good morning. If you only support abortions in instances of rape or incest, you're reinforcing the idea that in order for a woman to have control over her own body, someone else had to violate it first."

To which Obadiah Youngblood replied: "At 38 weeks gestation, it's not simply a question of control over your own body--there's another body in question. On the other hand, a pulsatile clump of cells does not constitute a "heart." It's about line drawing and the moment of conception is not the place to do it."

To which Irishrygirl replied: "If someone is 38 weeks pregnant, that person wants that child. Crib is built, clothes bought, names picked out."

To which Obadiah responded: "You are being literal, intentionally missing the point. What about 28 weeks? The point is, at some point, the fetus/conceptus passes beyond a point where it's only about the mother. I'm for abortion rights. The question is where does abortion end and infanticide begin?"

8 weeks

But Obadiah was voted down.  Scores of Twitter readers liked Irishygirl's reply about the crib. Nobody liked, and some vilified, Obadiah.

For Obadiah, this whole thread illustrated a tactic in argument which exasperates him: Ignoratio elenchi, or in a slightly different meaning, "The Straw Man" setting up an argument you can win which has nothing to do with the original argument, which you would lose.

22 weeks

It is the inability to follow the more abstract point of the argument of abortion, which comes down to where in gestation what is part of the mother's body gains a new conceptual status, that of an independent human being, or, in ancient conception, that thing growing inside a woman's body becomes "ensouled."

As always, the best illustration of this sequence of call and response comes from "The Wire" where Stringer Bell tries to make a point to his staff about being satisfied with something which is not a success and calling it a success because it's easier. Bell is spinning out an abstraction, telling an allegory to make a point, but it's entirely lost on at least one of his minions.

Below, is the link to Stringer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp1ExC52BOc

That's what Obadiah was facing.