Basis For an Argument

BASIS FOR AN ARGUMENT

BY Dave Wanamaker: Education Director of Johnson County Kansas for Life

BASED ON THE ARGUMENT THAT PRO-LIFERS MUST BE WILLING TO ADOPT THE CHILD OF THE MOTHER WHO WANTS TO ABORT:

This argument can be distilled into the following assertion: unless the pro-life advocate is willing to help bring up the children she does not want aborted, she has no right to prevent a woman from having an abortion.

There are several flaws in this logic:

1. It begs the question of the personhood of the unborn. It only works if the unborn are not fully human. Otherwise, it is tantamount to her saying: "Unless you adopt my 3 children by tomorrow, I will put them to death." And who would consider the murder of one's children justified on these grounds? Nobody.

Think of all the ridiculous precepts that would result from this kind of thinking:

a. "Unless I am willing to marry my neighbor's wife, I have no right to tell her husband not to beat her."

b. "Unless I am willing to adopt my neighbor's children, I have no right to tell her not to abuse them."

c. "Unless I am willing to hire ex-slaves in my business, I have no right to speak out against slavery."

2. Although the pro-life movement *is* morally obligated to help women in crisis pregnancy (and there are nearly 2 organizations doing so for every abortion provider), it does not logically follow that abortion becomes a moral good if individual pro-life advocates are unwilling to participate in those ministries.

3. There are approximately 1.6 million abortions per year in the U.S. According to the National Committee for Adoption, there are 2 million people on adoption waiting lists. Tell your friend to "do the math."

4. The argument cuts both ways. Since most abortion advocates say that they are only "choice" advocates, what about those children borne by women who didn't choose abortion. Don't the "choice" advocates have a moral duty to help those women care for their children since the "choice" they made was to give birth, rather than abort? It is no coincidence that the very organizations that espouse "choice" do absolutely nothing to help the women (and their children) who exercised a choice other than abortion. In fact, only the pro-life movement creates and runs any organizations that provide alternatives to abortion. Bottom line? Those who say they are for "choice" are really only for abortion.

5. We would never countenance such reasoning in other cases of moral judgment. For example, the fact that a person during Hitler's reign was unwilling to hide Jews in his home does not mean that he cannot correctly say that the Holocaust was evil and should never happen again.

The electronic form of this document is copyrighted. Copyright (c) American Life League

Provided Courtesy of: Eternal Word Television Network 5817 Old Leeds Road Irondale, AL 35210