Josh Benner

Tag: Abortion

  • Pro-life: compromise vs practicality

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    Matt Walsh wrote an interesting piece for the DailyWire today. He was comparing the gun rights advocates to the pro-life movement.
    Walsh argues that the pro-life movement could learn from the gun rights advocates.
    The gun rights movement has a different attitude. They won’t give an inch. Ever. At all. They treat even the most mild gun restriction as a tyrannical assault on our way of life. They won’t agree that any gun should be banned. They won’t allow for any exceptions. They aren’t just in favor of gun rights. They are radically, absolutely, unequivocally in favor of gun rights. They are extremists about guns. And I don’t say that pejoratively. We ought to be extreme in our defense of our principles. Every gun rights advocate ought to be an extreme advocate. Every pro-lifer ought to be an extreme pro-lifer. That is the lesson here, I think.
    -Matt Walsh
    I normally agree with Matt Walsh but I think there’s a major flaw in his reasoning.
    Walsh argues that the gun rights advocates don’t budge, don’t give an inch, and that the pro life crowd celebrates seemingly small wins. But the gun advocates have the constitution on their side. Pro life advocates don’t (in fact, the supreme court precedent is against them).
    So the gun advocates are on top of a hill and defending their territory.
    The pro life crowd is on offense, trying to advance the agenda.
    The analogy is really rather that the gun rights advocates are similar to the pro-choice movement in that the pro-choice side also fights tooth and nail and doesn’t like to give an inch.
    Walsh criticizes the pro-life movement for being too quick to compromise. What’s the alternative? Especially when there is such vehement opposition? It’s not like a pro-life bill gets passed and the pro-choice advocates sit back and do nothing. States have passed laws requiring abortion clinics to educate women on alternative options. There’s a 2015 law in California which forces pro-life advocacy centers to post information about abortion. The battle rages on.
    You have to do things one step at a time. And so conservative state legislatures pass laws that help.  Walsh seems to call that “compromise,” but it’s utilitarian, it’s doing what you can today to save the unborn. Will it save them all? Sadly, no.
    Just because you can’t save everyone doesn’t mean you should give up at trying to save anyone in the pursuit of saving everyone. You do what you can.
    The pro-life side should most certainly not compromise or flinch from the value of all human lives, and having a deserve to protect the unborn. It should not compromise from the reality that life begins at conception. It should not compromise that abortion is wrong, because it is taking a life. And the pro-life side should continue beating the drum and fighting for new laws.

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

  • Doritos under fire for humanizing humans

     

    The above Super Bowl commercial for Doritos which depicts a man and woman viewing a sonogram, as the man is eating the corn chips. The fetus becomes aware of the chips and reacts, the man’s amusement. Eventually in frustration, the mother grabs the chip and throws it to the ground. And the baby forces himself or herself out of the womb.

    It’s silly. Not the funniest commercial ever. But it attracted the ire of NARAL, a women’s rights organization who promotes a pro-choice ideology. (more…)

  • Planned Parenthood on the defensive, another video released

    The Center for Medical Progress has released another video of a higher up with Planned Parenthood discussing sales of fetal tissue.

    With the first video, Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards was quick to dismiss the footage, attacking the organization. She states, “The allegation that Planned Parenthood profits in any way from tissue donation is not true.”

    Since the release of Richards’ statement, that has been largely accepted. People argue this video is taken out of context. Planned Parenthood is merely selling fetal tissues, which is legal. The only reason they’re discussing money is to cover storing and sending the materials. (more…)

  • Cleveland kidnapper, capital punishment, and abortion

    Ariel Castro
    Ariel Castro

    It’s interesting to me that the death penalty might be sought for Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro because he allegedly forced miscarriages on his captive victims, and that can be considered murder. If a woman chooses to terminate her own pregnancy, that is an abortion. If someone causes the pregnancy to be lost against the mother’s will, it’s murder. That idea is paradoxical. I don’t see how a fetus can be “murdered” if it doesn’t have a right to live in the first place. Because, for the fetus, what difference does it make? If someone assaulted your mother and caused the pregnancy to be lost, as a fetus, you were murdered? But if she made the decision, it was something else? (more…)

  • Pro choice paradox: why efforts to curb gender selective abortions are irrational

    Note: this post discusses what I see as a logical paradox in the current debate about abortion as a means of gender selection. Full disclosure: I am personally pro life.

    I’ve written before about the topic of gender selective abortion. In developing nations, the process of aborting a fetus (typically of a girl) based on gender is common. I read an interesting article this afternoon in the Montreal Gazette discussing how the practice is also becoming more common in North America among certain ethnic groups, while outlining different steps which the medical community has taken in an effort to curb this from happening.

    The Gazette sites an editorial from the Canadian Medical Association Journal which urges doctors to wait until the pregnancy is at 30 weeks before they inform parents as to the gender of the fetus. (more…)