I frequently find myself in abortion arguments with people who just cannot wrap their minds around the idea that I think the fetus deserves human rights. It’s like they believe I just bring up fetal rights as a red herring to distract from my supposed hatred of women. They do not believe the fetus deserves […]
While the terms “pro-life” and “pro-choice” are clearly open for interpretation, I’ve had the impression that, generally, “pro-life” people think abortion should be illegal except in cases that threaten the mother’s life (and perhaps in cases of rape*) and “pro-choice” people generally think abortion should be legal throughout pregnancy. My impressions are due partially to […]
So it’s pretty ridiculous how many times I’ve heard this: If you want to understand a pro-lifer’s perspective, take any argument about abortion and substitute “fetus” with “3-year-old.” Try this with me: “If you don’t like killing 3-year-olds, then don’t kill any. But don’t try to impose your beliefs on me!” See what happens […]
I am not, by any stretch, the first pro-lifer to draw parallels between abortion and infanticide. Many before me have tried to explain our concern that society could adapt the pro-choice mentality to apply to newborns. Pro-choicers usually respond with flat denial, and sometimes disgust. Killing newborns, after all, cannot be justified by bodily integrity. […]
In my opinion, bodily integrity—the idea that no person has the right to use another person’s body against their will–is the strongest pro-choice argument. Consider the court case McFall v Shimp: McFall suffered from a life-threatening bone marrow disease and his cousin, Shimp, was a compatible bone marrow donor. Shimp refused to donate bone marrow. […]
I am against the death penalty. Inspired largely by the work of the Innocence Project, I believe our system is too fallible to justly implement the death penalty. I’m certainly not alone in my stance; there are many people against both abortion and capital punishment. That being said, I can understand how a person could work to end […]
Last Saturday (January 21st) was the Walk for Life West Coast in downtown San Francisco. Secular Pro Life representatives Neil and Ellen Snyder attended, carrying the SPL banner with the slogan: “Call me an extremist, but I think dismemberment is wrong.” (This is my personal favorite slogan. If you like it too, you can get […]
Because of Initiative 26, I’ve seen a lot of debate recently about the definition of “personhood.” Our society finds it abhorrent to deny people rights. But the personhood debate implies that fetuses, though human, aren’t people, making our denial of their rights more palatable. Truth be told, I have a difficult time feeling emotional about […]
I wish that stories like this got more coverage. “Two abortion clinic workers pleaded guilty Thursday to third-degree murder in deaths that occurred at a Philadelphia clinic where seven babies were allegedly born alive, then killed with scissors…” I think pro-choice people are more likely to dismiss such a situation as a terrible anomaly, whereas […]
So I was reading this RealChoice blog post about a woman who went into a CPC by mistake, was shown her sonogram, and now, years after her abortion, still gets upset thinking of the images from the sonogram. The RealChoice author had some insightful commentary and I recommend you read the article all the way through. (You […]