Part 3 in the series Answering Planned Parenthood
Pro-Life: Use of the term "pro-life" to refer to those who oppose legal abortion.
Planned Parenthood: The "pro-life" concerns of abortion foes are only for fetal lives, not the lives of women or unwanted babies. "Pro-life" is a term used to make anti-abortion and anti-choice seem positive and good.
Pro-life is a short form for "pro-right-to-life". It is the belief that ALL INNOCENT LIFE has the right to life.
The pro-life philosophy is not only about abortion. It is a belief that innocent life may not be taken. Whether it's embryonic life in the womb or in a petri dish, or an elderly person whose care is perceived as burdensome.
Pro-lifers also fight for the disabled, whose lives are often considered not worth living. Disabled newborns are sometimes euthanized or otherwise very little effort is made to save them. Pro-lifers try to show that even though a person is disabled, it doesn't mean his life will be meaningless or without real joy. We have a false sense of pity in our society. We think that because we can't imagine living the life of a disabled person, that we can't fathom enduring any amount of suffering, then THAT person MUST be continually unhappy, therefore his life is not worthwhile, therefore, we're being very loving in killing him.
This is often invoked as an excuse to justify killing a fetus: he wouldn't have been happy anyway,so let's just kill him.
We don't do people favours by killing them. We are not addressing the problem. The disabled person is not the problem. The problem is the pain. The problem is the depression that sometimes accompanies suffering: that is treatable. The problem is society's attitudes towards disabled people. The problem is society's spiritual vaccuum. Instead of addressing these issues, we seek the easy way: kill a human being, the most precious thing there is. And it doesn't matter whether this death is self-willed or willed by someone else. We have no right to take innocent life.
We live in an age where every kind of pain is manageable. Sometimes that pain management is not available, but it exists. Every form of suffering can either be eliminated or at the very least alleviated to the point of being tolerable. We can develop a sense of joy in suffering hardship. It's the only way to find meaning in our existence. That goes for all people, religious or not.
The notion that pro-lifers don't care about women is ridiculous, as well. In the feminist perspective, the absence of abortion leads to women's deaths because some women will be so desperate to end a pregnancy, they attempt abortion on themselves, or find an amateur to do it.
The number of deaths from abortions has been extremely exaggerated. Once upon a time it was said that thousands of women died from illegal abortions every year.
That has demonstrated to be a lie. The man who invented that notion, Bernard Nathanson, a former abortionist and founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League, said he basically pulled the number out of thin air. The statistics show that only a small number of women died once penicillin was discovered.
Most illegal abortions were performed by professional doctors who were doing that as a sideline. Women who don't have access to abortion, don't generally attempt abortion.
But even if women do attempt abortion, and some do die: does it mean that we should justify the killing of a human being?
In this day and age, we have ample resources for women who have crisis pregnancies. We have social programs. We have welfare. We have church programs. We have an assortment of help.
But women, just like men, must accept the consequences of their actions.
This is not a matter of moralizing. As Dr. Phil says: you choose the action, you choose the consequences. This applies whether a person is Christian or atheist. If you choose to attempt an abortion on your own unborn child, then you choose the consequences of that.
That's not shallow or dismissive: that's reality.
We should not create a public policy based on a small group of women's poor decision-making skills. That is the height of lunacy.
If we make women take responsibility for their actions, then they will realize that they are responsible for themselves, and that's empowerment; and they can make decisions that will not lead to their own demise.
Empowering women to take responsibility for themselves does not mean we do not give them material assistance. It does mean we stop treating them like powerless victims, whose only empowerment is to kill their own unborn child. It's rather patronizing to believe that a woman is responsible for herself, EXCEPT when she's pregnant and does an abortion on her baby, and then she has no responsibility and no ability to surmount her victim status.
As for unwanted babies: this is a strawman.
Instead of examining the moral status of these fetuses, we just assume it's okay. Their unwantedness makes it okay.
Since when do people have the right to not want their unborn child? Since when has this been morally acceptable? Some people cannot take care of their unborn children and they renounce their parental rights. That's acceptable. But all children deserve the love of their parents. How does killing the fetus address the greater issue of people who think other people are so worthless that they have the right to not want their child?
