The argument which states that if abortion was illegal more and more unwanted babies would be born is the epitome of the backward, pessimistic and defeatist Pro-Abortion arguments. The assumption is that people are wild animals who have no choice but to fornicate often and irresponsibly. Apparently, we must consider it a fact of life that millions of couples will become pregnant without meaning to and we would be cruel to force them to have a baby, “I don’t want them punished with a baby”—Barack Obama. This is called treating the symptom, the effect, instead of the cause. Such treatment could be fatal in a medical case and it is fatal to the moral and spiritual wellbeing of the world.
This argument assumes that we are so weak and uncontrolled that we must abort innocent babies because they are, by no choice of their own, inconveniencing us. This is pure malicious pessimism. We are pouring our time, money and energy on treating the symptom / effect and not the cause. Getting back to differentiating between right and wrong, true and false, good and evil, sin and righteousness will keep unwanted babies from ever being conceived. But this would mean tackling an issue that society wants to keep tight lipped about and that is morality and the requirement to take responsibility for our own actions and the consequences thereof.
Let us accept the fact that everyone in the world will not follow one set of morals. Therefore, let us accept that fact that whether we are Pro-Life or Pro-Abortion not everyone in the world will agree with us. It is useful to be realistic and accept the facts. Since these worldviews, Pro-Life and Pro-Abortion, will not be accepted by everyone let us do what should be done to all theories, let us draw each out to its logical conclusion.
The Pro-Abortion worldview is one in which morals are relative and truth is likewise. According to this worldview, people should do whatever they want, whenever they want, to whomever they want and as much as they want (and they cannot even throw in a generic caveat about not causing harm since they support the murder of innocent babies or rather, they simply define innocent babies as outside of the human family).
Since people will do the wrong thing anyways, it is not even worth teaching them a different way (on the issue of abortion for instance we may ask if anyone has ever heard of abstinence or actually planning parenthood before one is a parent). Since people are nothing but glorified animals and we cannot help but fornicate. This will produce pregnancy which is a mere inconvenient side effect and so abortion is an absolute necessity. The death of the innocent and defenseless is merely part and parcel of this worldview
The Pro-Life worldview is one in which truth and morals are absolute, having been given to us by God Himself—the Declaration of Independence affirms that our rights, such as life, were given to us by “nature’s God…our Creator.” People are to love their fellow human beings and not take advantage of them in any way. Since people will do the wrong thing it is only logical to teach them that there is a better way (such as respecting one’s own, and other people’s, bodies thus, waiting until marriage for sexual relations to follow). That people are special beings created in God’s image to love and respect each other can bring about abstinence. Personal responsibility is a reality and of utmost importance. The death of the innocent and defenseless is not at all acceptable according to this worldview.
Special-creation is the height of optimism. It offers both the fleeting moment as well as eternity. It offers absolute morals as dictated by a being that is infinitely wiser than we. It explains all life and the whole universe as a purposeful miracle. It teaches that humans are special beings with free wills. It offers eternal justice. It offers meaning for yesterday, comfort for today and hope for tomorrow. Thus, we may live like decent people with strong morals and therefore, respect for person and regard for God.
We realize that not all Pro-Lifers nor all Pro-Abortionists hold to these exact definitions of the worldviews, yet we have generalized due to the context of these articles.
Since the whole world will not follow either worldview we must ask: what should we, at least, strive for? Because whatever we strive for is the direction that we will surely go.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BOOKS:
Bernard Nathanson, The Hand of God: A Journey from Death to Life by the Abortion Doctor Who Changed His Mind
Randy C. Alcorn, Why Pro-Life?: Caring for the Unborn and Their Mothers
Randy C. Alcorn, Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments Expanded & Updated
Scott Klusendorf, Pro-Life 101: A Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Case Persuasively
ESSAYS:
“Sacred Abortion”
Richard Dawkins – On Abortion, Tadpoles, Rape, Cows, Murder and Sheep
The Exorcist’s Abortion and the Satanist’s Repentance
George Tiller, Abortionist Murders, and the Richard Dawkins Correlation
Is pro-life and pro-death penalty a contradiction?
Dan
Barker – His Views On Human Dignity
The
Abortion Money Machine Rolls Out the Ads in the UK
Pro-abortionists target pro-lifers
Greg Koukl on pro-abortion “logic”
Abortion and the Intolerance of the Pseudo-Tolerant