Evictionists state that the act of abortion must be conceptually separated into the acts of:
1.the eviction of the fetus from the womb, and
2.the dying of the baby.
Building on the libertarian stance against trespass and murder, they support a right to the first act (eviction), but
not the second act (murder).
They believe the
woman always has a right to evict if done in the gentlest manner possible as
long as the
woman has publicly announced her abandonment of the right to custody of the fetus.
The evictionist view is that the mother may not directly
kill the unwanted
child (
e.g., initiate a medical abortion), but she may
indirectly do so by evicting it from her premises during a time in which it is non-viable outside the womb.
Evictionist founder, Walter Block modifies
Judith Jarvis Thomson’s famous violinist thought experiment and uses it to support his claim.
It’s essentially this: If you woke up one morning, connected by medical tubes to the body of an unconscious violinist, surely you shouldn’t be legally obligated to remain attached because that would constitute slavery. You are free to disconnect
yourself,
even though the violinist may soon die after they are disconnected from your life support.
The violinist, though unconscious, is in effect trespassing the property of your body, and therefore you have the right to evict.
However, It’s impermissible for you to end this involuntary connection by slitting the violinist’s throat; that would be
unnecessary, and thus
murder.
Evictionists also believe that advances in technology
will continue to improve the medical ability to preserve a living
fetus after removal from its mother. This future technology is hoped to save the lives of evicted fetuses at increasingly younger ages whereas
aborted fetuses would continue to die at any age.
During the past several decades, neonatal care has improved with advances in medical
science, and therefore the limit of viability has moved earlier. The lower limit of viability is approximately five months gestational age, and usually later.
Evictionism protects
babies from
abortion while preserving women's rights to their bodies.
