Libertarianism 101: What's the libertarian position on abortion?

July 30, 4:47 PMDallas Libertarian ExaminerGarry Reed

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In 300 words or less...

The libertarian position on abortion is this: there are as many positions as there are libertarians, just as there are as many positions as there are people in general.

At a minimum, to claim the status of "libertarian" a person must reject the use of coercion, threat of coercion, and fraud as a legitimate way of organizing society.

This leaves libertarians with two fundamental, and seemingly conflicting, positions.

(AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

Libertarians with a conservative, traditionalist, religious or similar background typically declare that life begins at conception and that therefore the fetus is a human being with the same rights as any other human being.

Libertarians who come from a liberal, civil rights, nonreligious or similar tradition generally take the position that a fetus is not a sovereign individual until it is born, at which point it acquires the same rights as all other sovereign individuals.

There are, of course, as many variations on these two themes as there are people.

This seems to be an irreconcilable conflict of rights, pitting those of the fetus against those of the mother.

But a "right," to be a right, must apply to all individuals equally. Otherwise it's not a right; it's a privilege. What appears to be a conflict of rights is actually a conflict of opinions.

That's because the entire abortion issue rests on opinions. Positions for and against are inevitably interlaced with statements like: It's my belief, It's my conviction, I think, I feel, God says.

Even positions based on logic, reason, and science are still just individual opinions based on logic, reason, and science.

Until the day that unwanted pregnancy becomes obsolete (Biomedical science? Technology? Evolution?) no one has the right to coercively inflict an opinion on another.

So, at a minimum, the libertarian position should be: Keep government out of it.