1) Even though the fetus is “alive,” it has yet to “live.”
In response to this pro-life graphic, a pro-choicer wrote:
[I]t is not possible to ‘murder’ something that has yet to live. In a purely scientific sense, the fetus is ‘alive’, but it has not achieved personhood. …
Okay, wait, wait, wait – is this person really arguing that, even if you’re alive, you’re not living (i.e., you’re not really alive)? Even though the definition of alive is “living: living, especially still living, and not dead”?
I do realize that some pro-choicers believe that there are other reasons why abortion is not murder (I’ve never heard a valid one), but arguing that the baby has “yet to live” is the most illogical I’ve heard. If you’d like to read why a supposed lack of “personhood” is also not a good reason to support abortion, please see this excellent article.
2) Giving life to a child is not best for women.
In response to a map of Texas that shows 108 pregnancy resource centers and 6 abortion clinics, a pro-choicer wrote:
How I wish the people who run these centers, as well as those that fund them, would take the time to seriously consider what they are doing and what it really means. STOP LOOKING FOR WAYS TO TRICK WOMEN INTO MAKING DECISIONS THAT ARE NOT THE BEST FOR THEM.
It’s simply illogical to point-blank assume that women who choose to raise their children or who choose the gift of adoption are making a decision that’s not best for them. It’s also illogical to assume that, because women didn’t choose abortion, they were somehow tricked.
Plenty of women actually do want to give life to their children, but they need someone to assure them that they are indeed strong enough and that there is help out there for them. These are two main things that pregnancy centers give women – help and confidence. And that’s not a trick.
3) Fetuses are not children.
Jocelyn Elders, a former surgeon general of the United States, made this illogical comeback:
We really need to get over this love affair with the fetus and start worrying about children.
Because anyone who loves embryos, fetuses, neonates, infants – or toddlers, for that matter – definitely doesn’t love children or care about the well-being of children. After all, these aren’t different developmental stages of children. Apparently, they’re words for non-children. (For those who doubt that an unborn child is a child, see this dictionary definition.)
It is logical to care about children at every stage of their development, and illogical to say that some stages are more worthy of protection than others. (For those who doubt that pro-lifers care about already born children, take a look here, here, and here.)
4) If you’re a pro-life man, you’re inherently unattractive – even if you’re actually attractive.
You were so cute up until you thought you had a say on abortion.
This happened at work last night. Really attractive, really nice, then BAM anti-abortion. :(
This is just funny. Unlike the next point. If you’d like to hear why men have every right in the world – logically speaking – to have a say on abortion, read this article. For a real-life example of what happens when men have no say regarding their children’s lives, read this. And for ideas for guys caught in difficult situations, where their wives or girlfriends want an abortion, go here.
5) Pain is funny. And giving birth is worse than death.
Pro-choicers decided to respond to this graphic:
They said:
Funny thing is Foetuses don’t feel pain until like 24 weeks. -Ash
Funny thing is the pregnant person will be in more pain during pregnancy, birth, and recovery than the fetus ever would be during an abortion anyway.
A common second-trimester abortion procedure – so common that Planned Parenthood lists it as one of two “in-clinic abortion” options. (Click the picture for more detail.)
First, unborn children feel pain prior to 24 weeks. Twenty weeks is pretty much a given, considering the science. But there are also studies indicating that unborn children may feel pain much earlier – perhaps as early as 5.5 weeks.
Second, how is pain funny? And finally, how is it logical to argue that it’s okay to murder an innocent child – by suctioning his backbone into a tube, ripping him apart limb from limb, chasing him down as he flees in utero, crushing her skull, or puncturing her heart with poison – all because her mother would feel more pain by giving birth? I know firsthand that birth, recovery, etc. can be quite painful – but it would be nothing compared to losing my chance to live.
Here’s a graphic depicting a common second-trimester abortion procedure (so common that Planned Parenthood lists it as one of the two options for “in-clinic abortions”):
6) If you support the basic right to life, you believe in inequality.
This graphic does a good job of illustrating pro-choicers’ basic position:
I guess the the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are basically inequal documents – as in, they clearly support inequality. I mean, have you ever heard more inequitable statements?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
[N]or shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
That’s the difference between pro-lifers and pro-choicers. Pro-choicers believe that equality means that some human beings are exalted above others. They believe that a woman’s “right to privacy” or her “right to end the life of her child” is higher than her child’s right to life. Simply put, they believe that people are not all created equal; they believe that all persons do not deserve the equal right to life.
Pro-lifers believe that all rights must boil down to basic human rights, and that the most basic right of all is the right to life. We do not believe that unborn children are more important than women (as that graphic indicates) or that women are more deserving of rights than unborn children (as pro-choicers believe). Every single person is on an equal playing field here, and every single human being must be given an equal right to life in a civilized society.
Logically, the right to life trumps all other rights, and no one is greater than anyone else.
7) It’s okay to have an abortion. Really, it’s totally okay.
After using this graphic, Pro Choice Teddy Bear posted:
… You don’t have to have a kid! You don’t have to stay pregnant. It’s your body and your life. Nobody else gets to tell you what to do here.
This position illustrates the most tragic logic of all: no matter what your reason, you can kill your child.
Countless people would be outraged if the argument of “it’s your body; no one can tell you what to do” was applied elsewhere. Think about rape. Think about child molestation. Think about kidnapping and hostage situations. In every one of these example, the perpetrator is using his or her own body. So why on earth should anyone else be able to tell them what to do? It’s really pretty simple.
Because there is another body and another life involved – one who’s going to get very hurt or die if other people and the law don’t step in.
