We Asked, You Answered: Why do pro-choice people become pro-life?
It’s not unheard of for pro-choice people to become pro-life. In fact, the pro-life movement is filled with former pro-choicers who realized what abortion was and what it does to the unborn.
On social media, SPL asked:
Responses of all kinds showcased the diverse foundations of pro-life activism. Some became pro-life after personal experience with pregnancy or loss, some were convinced by science or logic, and still others were healthcare workers (yes, pro-life healthcare workers exist!). Here are some selected responses:
@Hurler1960: I was pro-choice to justify my own abortion for many years. Then I realized all the effects that abortion had on my emotional well-being, more bad choices, etc. Abortion is against everything I was designed for and every life is precious.
Aryan Downing: I started becoming more consistent in my ideology. Can’t claim to be for human rights if we’re actively stripping a class of human beings of their most fundamental rights.
Lori Wilkinson Laigaie: I became an ultrasound tech.
@johnhinman: Indifferent to abortion until I heard my son’s heartbeat for the first time. Turned to face the wall so no one would see me cry. That was the moment I became pro-life
Aimee Steinbrick: I used to think I wouldn’t have an abortion but wouldn’t object to someone else having one. Then I read an article that explained what was logically wrong with that thought process. Now, I’ve been an OB nurse for 10 years and on my way to becoming a certified nurse midwife. I’ve seen babies have hiccups in the belly at 13 weeks and delivered them at 25 weeks. They are certainly alive in there. Each with their own personality. I love watching their heart beat on the monitor and comparing their baseline to when they are out in the world. Usually the same. Shocker.
Cynthia Dimmey: Recognized that the defended rights of the smallest and most vulnerable of humanity inform the rest of a society. It’s not about the individual. It’s about us all.
@M3nagerie_Mom: When I discovered that my CA public school sex ed was almost entirely propaganda intended to promote abortion, meaning I entered adulthood lacking the info I needed to make informed choices about my health.
Inveterate Thorn: I saw the hidden camera videos from Project Veritas in ’16.
They were discussing body parts and organs. I thought to myself, that’s not a clump of cells. People have parts. It made me think more deeply about the subject.
Eric Marley: I listened to a number of people who were asking the question – where is the line when it becomes a human being worthy of rights and why is it there?
Sarah ToyLion: I saw in-utero pictures of baby development from conception to birth during a child development class in college. Probably freshman year. I was amazed and knew abortion was wrong immediately. I had never had any abortion dialogues, except I had always been told that it’s “just a clump of cells”. I was born in 1989, for context of the generational messaging.
Anthony Rose: I became pro-life while I was still an atheist, on account of I couldn’t actually explain why it’s okay to kill a human being that has not been convicted of a violent crime. And whether or not you believe a fetus is a person, scientifically, it is obviously a human.
Kayla Lacy: A few years after high school, I drove a friend to her abortion appointment. I was curious about the ultrasound so I went around to see it. It also broke my heart and made me sick to my stomach to hear women in the waiting room laughing about how many abortions they’ve had, one of them complaining about her state laws and that she traveled to this place to be able to get one.
Madalyn Hammond: Accidentally got pregnant. Went to my eight week appointment and heard my child’s heartbeat. Went home, did some actual research, and found out that as soon as a baby is conceived, they have their own separate DNA. Life starts at conception.
Juls Rush: I worked for one of the first ultrasound companies in the US who engineered a sector scan in which a baby was totally recognizable at an early stage. Watching those scans was an incredible experience. No doubt…a baby!!! I was not a Christian at the time and recognizing life in the womb was life changing for me. Now I am a Christian and those prior experiences really molded my own spiritual journey. (Hope you allow me to stay on this page. We have a lot in common wrt LIFE.)
Note: Yes! All people of any or no faith are welcome at Secular Pro-life. If you would like to hear testimonies from secular pro-lifers in specific, check out our Ask A Pro-Life Atheist collection.
If you appreciate our work and would like to help, one of the most effective ways to do so is to become a monthly donor. You can also give a one time donation here or volunteer with us here.
