Is Abortion Morally Good?

Arguments in favor of abortion (Pro-Abortion stance)

1. The fetus is not a person.
2. A woman is a person and, therefore, has the right to control her body.
3. Abortions prevent the birth of children who would be poor, unloved, handicapped, or otherwise worse off.
4. Abortion prevents the suffering of the parents of such children.
5. Without abortion, overpopulation and starvation would be even worse.
6. Unwanted children are more prone to become criminals.
7. Sex should be possible for pleasure and not merely for the purpose of procreation.
8. Every child should be a wanted child. Unwanted pregnancy carries massive problems including financial burdens, destruction of life plans, loss of time, and diminished reputation.
9. Fetal tissue research is only possible if fetal tissue is available.
10. Abortion is a safety net for other methods of contraception failing.
11. It allows women to be free from the patriarchal domination of the traditional family structure. You can’t say women can be equal without letting them separate from the traditional child-bearing role.
12. Women shouldn’t have to suffer so much for one mistake.
13. If you care about women, you’ll care about protecting women’s rights and women’s issues.
14. Pregnancy is a problem that no one should be forced to endure against her will.
15. An acorn is not a tree. Even people who are reluctant to cut down a live tree are not bothered by walking on a seedling that has dropped to the ground.
16. At best, a fetus is a potential human being prior to viability, presuming that a whole lot of other conditions get met. But then again, so is a sperm.
17. Even Augustine did not believe the soul was given at conception.
18. If you believe in contraception, you’ve already accepted all the main premises that justify abortion.
19. Eugenics: helps select in favor of better specimens, especially with in vitro methods.
20. Allows women to be free from the patriarchal domination of the traditional family structure.
21. Abortion is a simple, safe procedure with many benefits to women.
22. The exceptions are crucial: rape, incest, life of the mother.

Some thoughts on Pro-abortion arguments

1. Viability is a bizarre and unclear standard. Infants are not really viable, many pre-born are more viable than some born. If I am really ill, I am not viable. Am I not a person at that point?
2. It’s highly offensive to imply that it is better to never live at all than to live as a poor, unloved, or handicapped, etc. person.
3. The handicapped especially are a tremendous blessing to their families and our society.
4. Giving birth is not suffering, it’s the greatest thing a person can do in her life.
5. This is not a “women’s issue.” Misogynists love abortion, but not because it is beneficial to women. Reproductive issues are of great concern to every human.
6. Evaluating people in terms of their social value is a huge mistake.
7. Arguments used for abortion are easily used for infanticide, and have been in past and even now.
8. Judgments about who is a person are very dangerous. All the same arguments for abortion were used about blacks, women, Jews, serfs, etc. (Slavery, Nazism, killing female babies)
9. In 1960, 90% of all illegal abortions were performed by doctors. It was no less safe than when it became legal.

Why abortion is wrong

1. The entire issue depends on what the pre-born is. If it’s a person, then every other argument falls apart. And the evidence is overwhelming that it is a person. Medical, cultural, DNA, gender, etc.
2. If a child asked, “Daddy, can I kill this?” your first response would be, “What is it?” because that is the primary issue. Whether it’s an ant, a kitten, or a baby makes all the difference.
3. Common language endorses pre-born. (Eating for 2, my baby, names before born, miscarriage = I lost my baby, baby’s first picture = sonogram, life of the “mother.”)
4. If it’s not a human person, what is it?
5. Pre-born recoil in pain from a scalpel or needle. In fact, the pro-abortion journal “Lancet” advocates anesthetizing the fetus before the abortion is performed. Why anesthetize if not alive?
6. How can it be immoral to drink alcohol during pregnancy because it may cause birth problems but it’s okay to take a pill that entirely destroys the child?
7. We all know it’s far worse to kill a pregnant woman. In fact, it’s almost worse than killing two adults, there’s something so heinous about it. We have double-murder laws, but only for the wanted ones.
8. Conception is the most logical place to say identity and life begin. Birth is far less interesting.
9. Any line drawn other than conception is arbitrary and an interruption of a natural process.
   SLED test. Only differences between a baby and a fetus: Size, Level of development, Environment, and Dependency. None of these is sufficient to make or unmake someone human. These factors are all irrelevant to morality and the status of a person as a person.
10. Even if we are uncertain, we should err on the side of caution. (Hunter and rustling bushes analogy.) Roe v Wade got it backwards in saying to legalize when uncertain.
11. If you stumble upon a body, isn’t the very first thing you want to know is its life status. If it might be alive, you are not allowed to do anything harmful to it.
12. We do surgery on in utero fetuses to save their lives all the time. Why do we do heroic things to save wanted babies born prematurely or still in utero, but older babies still trapped in the womb are abortable even well after they would have legal protection if they could only escape the womb?

Other thoughts on why abortion is wrong.

1. It’s weird and dangerous to make “human” status depend on someone wanting you or not.
   Only the unwanted need protection usually. Are unwanted children not people?
2. The view of children as a burden is historically very new and weird. The most glorious and precious ability that only women have is their capacity to create children.
3. Choice to have sex is a matter of choice itself, therefore the right to choose is not violated here.
4. How do you explain to kids that you would never do this to them, but it’s okay to do it to their siblings.
5. It’s a huge mistake to say that only the wanted or valuable people are deserving of protection.
6. Deprive a being of a human future. Deprive us of their future value.
7. Abortion requires doctors to violate the Hippocratic Oath. “Will not prescribe a pessary for abortion.”
8. We have systematically destroyed the labor force. Baby boomer problem? (30-45 million people)
9. It is most noble to protect those who cannot protect themselves.
10. Historically, abortion has been used to discriminate against undesirables. (Blacks and planned parenthood. Margaret Sanger wanted to eliminate the “human weeds.”)
11. Both Creation and Evolution say it is wrong.
12. Fathers have responsibilities if the mother decides to carry to term, why don't they have rights now?
13. This diminishes personal responsibility.
14. It’s a physically dangerous procedure. (Death, infertility, disability.)
15. Many women suffer tremendous emotional scarring. (Many later become pro-life, even Roe)
16. Without abortion, less people would be promiscuous/adulterous.
17. Can intelligent, good, informed people disagree about abortion? Yes on legality, no on morality.

Biblical perspective.

1. Pre-born have identity (Jesus/John the Baptist), Jeremiah was known before birth, David was wicked from the womb.
2. God loves babies, in fact the first blessing/command was “Be fruitful and multiply.”
3. Massive killing of babies has always been done by those who hated God. (Herod, Pharaoh.)
4. God opens and closes the womb, this is not for man to decide/control.
5. Children are a blessing, not a problem. (Infertility is a curse.)

Also, be sure to check out my newest article: A Reminder to Pro-Life Christians.