How secular pro-choicers become secular pro-lifers
In mid-July we launched our survey of non-traditional pro-lifers. Respondents described their religious views and whether they’ve always opposed abortion. Those who haven’t always opposed abortion elaborated on what changed their minds.
Below is a selection of those answers from people who described themselves as “atheist” or “agnostic.” You can also see many similar answers from our Ask An Atheist series.
If you haven’t always been opposed to abortion, what brought you to oppose it now?
Being pregnant with my son and realizing this was a real baby who I was given to protect.
AS, atheist woman
Believing the “clump of cells” argument until learning some basic biology.
Jim H., agnostic man
Watching a real life video of an abortion being performed, seeing the process and that it really was a baby that was being killed.
CK, agnostic woman
Learning that doctors make mistakes with in-utero diagnoses. Feeling more and more inconsistent with my other pro-life beliefs like being anti-death penalty. Seeing how hard women still struggle after having an abortion when they wished they had more supports to choose life.
Krissy L., agnostic woman
Going through the experience of pregnancy and birth. I’m a scientist, so it’s silly that I would not have been aware of the stages of life, but I simply did not appreciate how quickly development occurs and how early in pregnancy the fetus becomes very close to being what almost anyone would recognize as a small person. Also the argument of viability or autonomous survival became less compelling to me as I realized that it’s a bad argument if applied to born living humans (children and adults). But I think my argument on both ends would hinge on brain function – if the brain has the potential to function to control the body either now or in the foreseeable future than killing the individual becomes difficult to justify.
Rebecca D., atheist woman
I stopped interacting with liberal spaces and people, then realized that abortion is evil unless absolutely necessary.
Anonymous, agnostic woman
Realizing while suicidal that I had to change because all life mattered, including my life as well as the lives of unborn children.
ES, agnostic
I thought I had to support abortion when I left religion (Southern Baptist). Secular Pro-Life and other perspectives brought me back.
HB, agnostic woman
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