Healthcare Is Not A Human Right

All the recent anti-abortion legislation that’s passed in the past few weeks, seems to have everyone arguing and talking about abortion, and I’m no exception. My peer group mainly consists of progressives and libertarians. While, almost none of the progressives (that I encounter) are pro-life, about half of the libertarians are pro-life. I’m pro-choice myself, so abortion discussions with my progressive friends are brief, “Gee, it’s a shame about Alabama” and not much more. However, I find myself in heated discussions with my libertarian pro-life friends, which confuses me, because pro-life views go against some of the most basic values of libertarianism.

One area where I often differ from progressives (and expect to differ) is
on the concept of healthcare as a human right. According to my libertarian values, I believe the only rights that truly exist are natural rights, meaning nobody has the right to kill, rob, assault, or otherwise harm others. I believe people have a right to the pursuance of healthcare. There are many rights I do not believe in regard to health care: People do not have a right to force another person to provide them healthcare; force another person to pay for their healthcare; the right to force a provider to accept their insurance; people have no right to force a person to heal or care for them, in any way, shape, or form. The genesis of this belief is that I (as well as everyone else), do not have a right to another person’s labor and resources without their consent.

I can understand why this gets me in hot water with a lot of progressives, because these beliefs force me to oppose things like: medicare for all, government required paid maternity leave (though I do believe employers should provide it); and a whole slew of other taxpayer funded health programs. However to those(right leaning libertarian and otherwise), who agree with the above beliefs, but remain pro-life I would like to pose some questions: If we can agree that we’re not entitled to the resources of another person even for the sake of our health, why is a fetus entitled to it? If you or I are not entitled to nine months of a person’s full attention, why is a fetus entitled to it? If we’re not entitled food or shelter from another person, why is a fetus entitled to it? And perhaps, more importantly, why is a fetus the ONLY form of life whose healthcare should be guaranteed by the federal government? If you are a pro-life libertarian, please take some time to consider these questions, if you haven’t already.