It's what pro-lifers haven't been saying that's the problem!

Pro-lifers (particularly American ones) have done a really good job of destroying myths about abortions and unborn babies. More and more people KNOW there's a baby inside a pregnant mother. And they're willing to extend some protection to him.

Despite all these wonderful advances, my impression is that there lacks something in the discourse that is reaching the general public. Many women know there's a baby inside of them. Many women understand that abortion kills the baby.

And they STILL GET ABORTIONS!

Somewhere in the rationale of these women, the unborn children do not deserve equal consideration. They would never dream of killing a born baby. Why kill an unborn?

There are probably many answers to this, but one is that they have never heard of every granting equal consideration to the unborn child. They do not feel he's an equal. As a resident of her womb, he must submit to her whims, regardless of the effect on him.

I often discuss fetal rights issues on the internet. Many people, including pro-lifers, are taken aback by the notion that unborn children deserve Charter Rights. My discourse is something of a novelty. The completely committed pro-lifers embrace my vision, but it's like they've never heard of this before. They've always spoke of ending abortion, criminalizing abortion, not of ultimately gaining fetal rights and equality (although that's what they're aiming for).

The no-choicers are aghast. As if no pro-lifer has ever breathed a word about this. It's completely new.

Of course these are just impressions. I am only one person, and it can be unwise to generalize from one's individual experience. But I frequent a heck of a lot of message boards and blogs, and I very rarely see this discourse.

I think this is one avenue of unblocking the abortion debate, at least in Canada.

We're at a virtual political standstill in this country, although I do think we are slowly gaining momentum. I think we can gain more momentum by injecting a new kind of discourse, one that will make public confront its own views.

See, the problem is the issue is framed as an abortion issue. And we shoot ourselves in the foot by perpetuating this framework (and I use that terminology too, because if you get too unconventional, people won't talk to you). At least amongst ourselves, we have to stop calling this an abortion issue, or the abortion debate. We have to call it the fetal rights issue, or unborn rights or something similar.

Why? First off, because if we perpetuate the liberal framework, it sets us up for rhetorical failure in the minds of the public. What is an abortion in the minds of the public, as framed by the liberal elites? It's an operation that is meant to remove a burden from a pregnant woman, and help her get on with life.

We're against that. How can we win that debate? We can't. So long as people see it as a debate about abortion, they will see a woman who is undergoing a so-called operation for her own benefit (and possibly theirs).

But we know that's not the debate. The elites frame it that way, because that's how they understand it, and they perpetuate that framework where they have influence, which is almost every major institution in society. When you frame the debate in your opponent's terms, based on your opponents premises, you will lose. Simple as that.

Which brings to my second reason why we cannot call the abortion issue. IT'S NOT ABOUT ABORTION! IT'S ABOUT FETAL RIGHTS.

Reading the liberal blogs, you wouldn't know this is the real crux of the issue. Admittedly, some of this is willful blindness on the part of no-choicers. They have truly deluded themselves into thinking that the debate is about EVERYTHING else BUT fetal rights...It's about hating sexuality, controlling women, wanting to establish a theocracy, etc etc. It is NEVER about the unborn child. Ever. They cannot fathom that we truly love unborn babies.

So long as the public is lulled into believing that the issue is about abortion, they will not confront their views of the unborn child. They will continue to believe it's a debate about "choice", not about the unborn child, and they won't have to wrestle with the issue of the CHILD.

The lack of fetal rights discourse is our own fault. Let's take responsibility for our own rhetoric. How is it that millions of no-choicers truly believe that it's about anything BUT fetal rights? The fact is, pro-lifers have not played that up. We haven't said it enough. We've talked about the sin of abortion, how abortion is murder, how women murder, and doctors murder, and life begins at conception, and Jesus heals, and adoption is the loving option, and women deserve better than abortion... and on and on.

Hardly a word about defending unborn children as PEOPLE. Hardly a word about fetal rights or equality. So long as the issue is about an action, a SIN, the public will recoil at the thought of restricting abortion to any great degree. People are loathe to restrict freedom of action, especially when they think they can personally benefit from it.

But they are willing to consider granting a group of people their legal rights if we can convince them it is their due. It's the PERSONHOOD of the unborn child that is the strength in this debate. How can anyone look at pictures of unborn babies, watch videos about them, read about them, etc. and not gain a greater respect and sympathy for them? That's one way in which Americans have made the public more open to criminalizing abortion. But the rhetoric doesn't always reflect that. It reflects a discourse about sin, action, but not about the personhood of the unborn child, and it hasn't been strong enough to give the public a reason to believe we're serious about their equality.

Our informal culture (music, writing, art), our speech, our politics must be imbued with the sense that we are on a combat, no so much to fight abortion, although that's a huge part of it, as fighting for equal rights for unborn children. AND WE HAVE TO PROJECT THAT. I know that many pro-lifers might feel hurt reading this, because they really believe in unborn equality, but we must judge by results, and the result is that the public is not hearing that message, and it's to our disadvantage. The love of the unborn child will prevail, if we act like it's the child deserves that equal love. Although human beings can be selfigh and sinful, the desire to love is what fulfills, and people instinctively know that, and if they're made to feel the unborn child is worthy of their equal consideration, they will simply love to fulfill their own hearts and want to grant him equal rights.

And I would like to suggest a new slogan for the pro-life movement to help it on its way: EQUALITY BEGINS AT CONCEPTION. If this is the message we spread, the public will be forced to think about the unborn child.