A special Two Part Series giving ten Pro-Life Answers to Pro Choice Questions

Part Two 

We can all struggle when answering the statements made by pro-choice campaigners. Meritxell, an experienced pro-life campaigner who travelled the city centres of Scotland as part of an educational pro-life roadshow called “Project Truth”, identified for us ten of the most common statements used by pro-choice campaigners, and made the point that pro-life is in reality also pro-choice. 

The difference between the two is that pro-life does not accept the killing of innocent children as a choice that any of us should be allowed to make. 

The following are her list of statements, to which I have added simple answers that you can use, and additional information that may help you.

Often the baby has a completely different blood type from that of the mother, and fifty percent of the time the baby is a different gender from his mother.

The false assumption is that a baby is merely a body part of its mother, like one of her limbs or organs. That is biologically incorrect. The genetically distinct unborn child is attached to the mother and dependent on her for life, but the foetus isn’t a part of his or her mother. A mother’s rights do not include the freedom to kill her own child.

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6. You are pro-life because your religion tells you to be so. 

Simple Answer: The pro-life case doesn’t rely on any religious premises, and the existence of numerous atheist pro-life groups shows how misguided this statement is. The simple non-religious logic that pro-lifers use is as follows: 

A. It is immoral to intentionally take an innocent human life.

B. Abortion on demand intentionally takes an innocent human life. 

C. Therefore, abortion on demand is immoral. 

Information: The statement above begs a fundamental question – what is the unborn? If the unborn is in fact a human being, then humanity cannot permit abortions simply on the basis that Christianity or any other religion opposes it. The truth is that killing children in utero violates the natural law, not just Christian teaching.

If something is true, it remains true, regardless of who agrees with it. It is the nature of the unborn that is key to this debate, not who the groups are debating it.

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7. It is not a human being, it’s not a baby, it’s just a foetus or a clump of cells or an embryo.

Simple Answer: The unborn is human from the point of conception onwards, science has demonstrated and much, and this is widely accepted in scientific circles. Different developments occur both in the womb and outside it, appearances and size change significantly over time, and support is required from the mother, all of this is true. But at no point does an embryo or a foetus change from something other than a human into a human. He or she develops, yes, but at no point ceases to be human, this remains constant throughout this development.

Information: The use of terms like the above (“clump of cells”, “just a foetus”) are attempts to dehumanize the unborn. Once someone has been dehumanized, it becomes far easier to justify their mistreatment, or to remove basic rights from them. This fact was clearly demonstrated by the Nazis treatment of the Jews. Foetus and embryo, just like infant or toddler or adolescent, are simply terms used for specific developmental stages of a human being. 

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 8. Pro-lifers want to take away women’s rights.

Simple Answer: This is not true. Fifty percent of unborn children are girls. The unborn female has a body that is separate from that of her mother. She has her own unique DNA. Her own genetic code directs the development and growth of her body from the moment of conception. Therefore, one out of every two abortions takes away all the rights of a single woman, over 20 million of them every year! A woman, or a man, has no right to kill an innocent human being, whether male or female.

Information: If abortion represents the killing of an innocent member of the human family, it is of its very nature immoral, unethical and cannot be justified. There is no such thing as a right to kill innocent people. By aborting an unborn girl, one takes away her right to control her own body, to become a mother, to live a full life. It also takes away her right to choose anything in the future. Of course, it also takes away a right far more fundamental than the right to choose – the right to not be killed.
A mother’s rights do not include the right to kill her own child.

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9. Women will die of unsafe abortions if they are illegal.

Simple Answer: Is it acceptable for society to sanction the killing of unborn babies just because some people might do it anyway? The fact is that in the US for example more women are dying today as a result of legal abortions than were dying from illegal ones before its legalization in 1969.

Information: This myth was promoted by the abortion on demand industry. Dr. Bernard Nathanson, the co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League, admitted that he and other abortion industry leaders invented the claim that “thousands of women are dying annually from unsafe abortions.” They did this in order to win public sympathy for legalization.
In fact, the true numbers of women dying from illegal abortions in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s was around 30 to 40 a year. It is difficult to obtain an accurate number for the current number of women who die each year as a result of the now legal abortions on demand, but what is certain is that this number is significantly higher than the pre-legalization one.

 So, more women are dying today as a result of legal abortion than were dying before its legalization in 1969.

Abortion surgery and abortifacient pills like RU-486 do sometimes result in death from continued bleeding or infection. And post abortion complications also account for many other deaths which are often excluded from official statistics. Studies also show a correlation between abortion-choice and suicide. If we want to keep women from dying we need to end the abortion culture and support your neighbours through their pregnancies.

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10. A final point. What about compassion for young women who feel that their lives will be ruined by an unwanted pregnancy? Well, what is the unborn? If the unborn is in fact a human being, we cannot choose one person’s convenience over another person’s life. The inherent right to not be killed always ranks higher than the alleged right to be free from hardship or inconvenience.

For example, it is false to suggest that a woman’s future educational and career goals must end because she becomes pregnant. With the choice of adoption and the many support programs which exist today, young women or teens can postpone their educational plans, or receive additional help, and still achieve their goals.