Abstract
There are not two but rather three views regarding the issue of abortion. The first two, pro life and pro choice, are well known. The present paper is dedicated to an elucidation of the third, evictionism. In this perspective, the pregnant woman is allowed to evict her unwanted fetus, but, if it is viable outside of the womb, she is not legally permitted, also, to put it to death, as would apply to abortion. In other words, abortion combines two very different acts, eviction and murder, and only the former is licit, under libertarian law.
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Notes
We are now operating under very stringent assumptions.
A referee of this journal points out that there is a debate over whether or not “humans” and “persons” are synonyms. I regard them as such. But to enter into this debate would take me very far afield of the aims of this paper, so I will not do so.
According to Jewish tradition, however, the fetus is not viable until it graduates from medical school.
It is similar to the issue of how far, and in what context, does A’s fist have to be from B’s chin before the latter is justified in taking violent defensive action. Or, to what is the proper age of consent for statutory rape laws. For more on this see Block and Barnett (2008).
This statement was once upon a time correct. However, recent changes in the law in North Dakota, Kansas, Arkansas and other states belie that sweeping statement. I thank a referee of this journal for pointing this out to me.
My computer program objects to my use of the word “who” in this context. When I substitute “that” for “who” this satisfies the program. However, since I maintain that the fetus is a rights bearing human being, I shall confound my computer. Ha! Take that!
This would certainly cover B placing poison in the drink he serves to A.
Or in other ways allow his sperm to interact with her egg.
It is in this way, and only in this way, that evictionism is tied more to the pro life than to the pro choice side. Otherwise, and in every other way, evictionism is a true compromise between the two of them.
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Acknowledgments
I thank Elizabeth Dolan, and several anonymous referees, for greatly improving this paper. Of course, all remaining errors and infelicities are my own responsibility.
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Block, W.E. Toward a Libertarian Theory of Evictionism. J Fam Econ Iss 35, 290–294 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-013-9361-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-013-9361-4