Arguments for keeping abortion safe and legal are usually framed in terms of 'women's rights'.
I think this is a huge tactical mistake. First, it inaccurately implies abortion as something primarily women support and primarily men oppose. In fact, survey research has shown that men and women approve of legal abortion in roughly equal numbers.
Most of all, it's a distraction because it fails to rebut the pro-life argument, which is that fetuses and embryos are 'persons' from the moment of conception deserving of all the rights and privileges normally associated with 'personhood'.
Imagine for a moment that the pro-life argument is correct and that there is essentially no difference between a six-week old embryo and a six-month old baby. No one would speak of a 'woman's right' to kill her six-month old baby, right? But the fact is that there is NO agreement as to when fetuses or embryos become persons, in spite of the pro-life movement's insistence that this happens at the moment of conception.
It's precisely this lack of agreement that speaks to obvious solution: let the individual decide, in accordance with her own conscience, faith, and morals. But just a simple insistence on 'women's rights' isn't very effective, since there are NO absolute rights or freedoms, of ANY kind.
