The Dishonesty of the Abortion Debate
Caitlin Flanagan believes we need to listen to the other side.
“The argument for abortion, if made honestly, requires many words: It must evoke the recent past, the dire consequences to women of making a very simple medical procedure illegal. The argument against it doesn’t take even a single word. The argument against it is a picture.” - Caitlin Flanagan
Truer words have never been spoken. I have to disagree with Caitlin. I really don’t have to, nor do I want to listen to the “pro-choice”* side of the argument.
There is a simple fact. We have a natural right to life. It is not moral to kill innocent human beings. Though many have done it in the past they are referred to as monsters, despots and terrorists. No right-thinking person can believe it is okay.
There is a line in Horton Hears a Who: “A person is a person no matter how small”. We see the self-inflicted horror of illegal abortion, and we really want to do something about it. So we convince ourselves that killing a person is okay if they are small enough, helpless enough, “can’t live outside the womb”. We try and make ourselves believe that they’re not really human with words like “fetus”, “zygote” and “clump-o-cells”.
This is really no different than in the not so recent past when we had “Judenkind” and “negro slave”. When the object of our oppression is not human we don’t have to have our consciences pricked and we can do anything with it as we would a meat animal, or vermin.
So we draw these arbitrary lines as to when the child in the womb is considered “human”. The United States is one of three countries in the world that allow abortion through the entire nine months of pregnancy. Every other country has some “civilized” restrictions. In the case of New York State, it extends even after birth**.
So here we are. Now the question will go back to the states, and again we can debate. But as far as I’m concerned there is no debate.
A child growing in the womb is an innocent human being.
It is wrong and evil to kill innocent human beings.
It is wrong in all cases to kill a child in the womb.***
Women will continue to seek illegal abortions.
Women will continue to die seeking illegal abortions.
This is unfortunate.
Thousands of children will be saved.
This is a reasonable trade-off.
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* One of the many euphemisms used by the pro-abortion movement.
** There was a section in the law requiring that if the baby survived the abortion, another doctor needed to be assigned to the care of the baby. Now they left it to the “hit-man” to determine if the “victim” deserved medical care.
*** Here is where the life-of-the-mother argument comes in. If the mother needs treatment they will try to save both the mother and child. If the child unfortunately dies, it is not an abortion. Abortion seeks the death of the child.