In light of the March For Life that happened in Washington recently, in light of the hyper focus of the left for abortion on demand, and in light of the upcoming campaigns which will feature such ridiculous slogans as “war on women," “reproductive rights” and “reproductive freedom," I felt a duty to gather the most prominent pro-abortion arguments I have heard and absolutely dismantle them. My purpose here is to take the common arguments and "traditional wisdom" regarding abortion and either open your eyes to the conservative rebuttal, or arm you with the arguments for your own debate.
1. Pro-life and pro-choice is a religious issue
No it’s not. The issue of abortion isn’t a religious issue and every single argument I make in this piece has nothing to do with religion. It is true that the vast majority of religious people fall into the pro-life category, but protecting life is not necessarily a religious thing. I have also found that it is far more effective to argue this topic without invoking religion.
2. The two sides are pro-life and pro-choice
This is incorrect. The pro-life side is accurately named because we believe that the life in the womb should be protected and born. But pro-life also offers a choice: keep the baby or give it up for adoption. The only thing that differentiates the two sides is abortion, and so the “pro-choice” crowd is more accurately called pro-abortion, especially since both sides offer a choice.
Several hundred pro-life supporters gather on the steps of the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Ala., Tuesday, March 5, 2013. Hundreds gathered to hear speakers, including Gov. Robert Bentley, during the 2013 Pro-Life Legislative Day rally. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
3. Men shouldn’t exact their will upon women
The laws we pass as a country and the laws on the books are exactly that – a system of beliefs that are, in essence, pushed on everyone. We, as a country, believe that you have a right to live and so murder is illegal. We believe in property rights and so theft is prohibited. Congress and the president believed that everyone should have health insurance, so now we are forced to buy it.
As for men telling women what to do, our officials are elected by both sexes and represent the will and desire of millions of men and women alike. The president and several of the Supreme Court justices are men, so how are we to extricate them from the process? Excluding men from the debate is not only sexist, but denies the reality that abortions can also affect men.
[sharequote align="center"]Excluding men from the debate is not only sexist, but denies reality that abortions also affect men.[/sharequote]
4. The baby isn't a human life until a certain point, it's just a mass of cells
First of all, we are all just a mass of cells. Some of us have a few more than others, but every one of us could be described in that way. Regardless of the terminology, that fetus in the womb is a human no matter what its physical appearance may be and no matter how early on in the pregnancy it is. What makes us human is not crossing some physical appearance threshold, it is our DNA. To argue that the baby in the womb is at any point not a human would be contradictory to established science.
As for the “mass of cells” not being a life, this too is contradictory to science. Quite plainly, something is either alive or dead, there aren't any other options. Scientifically speaking though, something is considered alive if it uses energy due to instructions within its genetic code. No matter how you slice it, that human inside the womb is a life.
5. It’s not a human unless it’s viable outside of the womb
Let me ask you this: If I take you and push you under water and hold you there, are you going to survive? Of course not, you'll drown and die. Why? Because you're not made to survive under water, that's not how you're built. So why is it a condition for a baby in the womb to meet when a full-grown adult can't be expected to survive in an environment that it wasn't built for?
6. It’s a woman’s choice and right to decide what she does with her body
This is without a doubt the most prevalent argument for abortion I've heard, and yet it is the easiest one to dismantle. What is the one thing that differentiates your body from everyone else in this world? It’s very simple – your DNA. So what would happen if we took cells from the baby in the womb and compared that DNA to cells from anywhere in the woman’s body? The DNA will be different because it’s two different people. The baby in the womb, though dependent upon its mother, is not her body.
So where does that leave us? Scientifically, the baby in the womb is a unique, human life, no matter how early on in development it is. There is no way you can accurately and legitimately argue otherwise. Once we have reached that point, how then do you justify the killing of that unique human life?
I understand that there will always be exceptions because of extraordinary circumstances. These exceptions we are all familiar with – health of the mother or baby, rape and incest. However, out of the many major reasons people said they were getting an abortion, those four instances were all in the bottom five. In fact, rape and incest make up less than 1.5 percent of all abortions.
The top reasons? Having a baby would "interfere with my life," "can’t afford a baby," "don’t want to be a single mother," "having relationship problems," "don’t want anyone to know I’m pregnant," etc. All of the top reasons have this in common – abortion is used to avoid the consequence of actions.
One last stat before I go: Just today, around 3,300 unique human lives will have been ended by abortion, the vast majority because they weren’t wanted or convenient.
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