A common argument I hear in the abortion debate is that pro life people aren’t really pro-life, we’re pro birth. That if we were really pro-life, we’d support all sorts of government programs. Federally backed universal pre-K, expanded maternity leave, etc, etc, etc. Furthermore, we also must personally be adopting and fostering babies and donating to help support mothers who don’t want to have babies.
To be fair, many pro-life people do those things. Christians, for instance, adopt babies at a rate that is twice the national average. Pro-life people open up pregnancy centers to care for mothers. There are also innumerable government programs which help provide food, healthcare, and other necessities. During this formula shortage (and as the father of an eight month old, I’m in the thick of it), I learned that like half the babies in America qualify for WIC .
Could these programs be expanded even more? Sure. I’d be on board with that. But here’s part of the issue. There’s always one more government program people can think of.
I also think that it should be easier for people to adopt. If it wasn’t prohibitively expensive, many more people would adopt. But just because I haven’t adopted a baby, that doesn’t mean that I’m just pro-birth.
That’s like saying that if a person didn’t personally host a Jewish person in their home during the reign of the Third Reich, that they didn’t really oppose the Holocaust. Yes, I realize that’s not a perfect analogy (as far more babies have been aborted than people died in the Holocaust). I know people will say it’s not the same. But it’s a sad thing that we can’t at least agree that tens of millions of aborted babies is a tragedy.
It’s such a bizarre exercise where pro-choice people try to dictate what pro-life people must do in order to actually be pro-life. And if we don’t, then people should be allowed to kill their babies. So basically, it’s a hostage situation.
Now for the person who’s pro-choice, if pro-lifers did all of these things, would the pro-choice person then be pro-life too? Of course not! (At least, not anyone I’ve ever talked to who’s pro-choice). Because it’s not simply about a lack of resources, but it’s about a fundamental belief that it’s morally acceptable (and even laudatory) for a person to kill their not yet born baby.
For that reason, the argument has always seemed to be to be disingenuous.
So pro-life people aren’t really pro-life if we’re not progressive liberals. That has always seemed pretty convenient. But here’s the thing.
If you’re pro-choice, then that means you are just as supportive of a woman choosing to abort OR to have the baby. But if you’re truly supportive of a woman having the baby, then what are YOU doing for that child? You also need to adopt him or her.
I mentioned earlier in this piece that tens of millions of babies have been aborted in this country. In the wake of the Roe reversal, I’ve wondered if the radicalism of the abortion movement was part of what led to the pro-life movement having the political will to see numerous states pass laws which are pro life.
We had been told it could never happen. Abortion went from being something “safe, legal, and rare,” something that was an unfortunate reality to something that became glorified. Not among everyone who’s had an abortion, but you’d see the “shout your abortion” movement and those talking about having had multiple abortions and treating abortion as birth control. It became grotesque. Blue states pushed for late term abortion laws where a fully developed fetus could be killed.
I’ve heard people talk about how much of a step back this is for America. The Mississippi law that led to the legal challenges that led to the overturning of Roe challenged a Mississippi abortion ban (unless there was an emergency situation) after 15 weeks. That’s later than most of Europe allows abortions.
But it wasn’t good enough. The radical abortion movement in America fought any limitations on abortion. Even with a fully developed fetus, even with a fetus that had a developed nervous system and that could feel pain. And we were told that such actions were good things.
The taking of innocent life was never good.
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Josh Benner 