13 Pro-Abortion Assertions & How to Give a Pro-Life Response Part 2

Assertion #4: If a woman can’t afford to deliver and raise a baby, she has the right to end the baby’s life so they’re both not financially burdened.

First of all, the pro-life view is to show compassion to a woman in that situation. She’s facing real-life struggles. A pro-life response is to encourage her to visit a pregnancy resource center, where healthcare professionals and caring people could give the mom direction and help. But notice what this line of thinking is really saying — that the pre-born baby is not human. Here’s why: We wouldn’t apply the same rationale to an older child. No mother would end the life of her 2-year-old toddler so she could balance her checkbook or pay her rent. No family would eliminate a son or daughter so they’d be in a better financial position. Why would it be OK to end the life of a pre-born baby for financial reasons? It’s not. In a hardship situation, adoption would be an option that allows the mother to choose life.

Assertion #5: An embryo isn’t life.

It’s true that human beings were less developed when we were embryos in their mothers’ wombs. But tell me why that matters? Why would size determine value? Why would level of development be the thing that gives us rights? It doesn’t and it shouldn’t. Adults aren’t more  human or have more value than kids do. We don’t think Shaquille O’Neal is more human or valuable than we are, simply because he’s 7 feet tall and we’re not. Remember what embryology says: The pre-born are human beings from fertilization. When a male sperm unites with a female oocyte, it forms a single cell called a zygote that has its own DNA distinct from the mother’s DNA. That’s a new life!

Assertion #6: A baby isn’t human until it is born. Therefore it has no rights.

How do two parents — two human parents — create offspring that is not human, but later becomes human? Can you explain that? The argument that a pre-born baby isn’t human until it’s born is actually claiming that location determines human value. But that’s faulty. At the delivery of a baby, how does a change from inside the womb to outside the womb change the essential nature of the baby? How does a journey of eight inches from the womb to the birth canal suddenly transform a baby from non-human to human? How does that baby change from a non-valuable thing we can eliminate to a human being who is valuable? In reality, location has no bearing on our worth. No one believes that a resident of Colorado has more inherent value than someone from Texas. Our intrinsic human worth doesn’t change based on our address.

Assertion #7: Abortion is healthcare.

What do you mean by healthcare? The original Hippocratic Oath explicitly forbade abortion as valid medical practice. Even the maxim, “Do no harm,” which undergirds the Hippocratic Oath, suggests that ending a life is antithetical to the purpose of medicine. Healthcare involves health and wellness, not the intent to kill. Elective abortion does involve the intent to kill. Therefore, elective abortion is not healthcare.

Source: Focus on the Family.com.