I am pro-life.  I vehemently oppose the institution of abortion and I lament Roe v. Wade and the decision that has hurt so many women and produced so many, many deaths.  Abortion is jarringly anti-woman, anti-minority, inhumane, and barbaric.  No matter how many arguments I hear in favor of Roe v. Wade‘s decision, none of them convict me in the slightest on why women should have this choice.  I do recognize that this is a really troubling and emotional topic, regardless of what side one is on, so please keep it civil in the comments.

My federal government teacher stated once that she has never heard an argument against abortion that isn’t based on religion.  That’s nonsense.  One of the best videos I’ve seen on the topic lays it out very simply: by process of logic, abortion is immoral and anyone with a conscience shouldn’t be able to support it.  It’s rather straight forward actually. Unfortunately, I cannot find the video, but the gist of it is this: almost everyone can agree that human life has inherent value.  We can all agree that it is wrong to take innocent human life.  Where pro-lifers and pro-choicers seem to differ is in arguing when life begins.  But pro-choicers don’t even agree amongst themselves where to draw the line.  Some will say after the first trimester when the fetus is more developed.  Some will say at the point that the fetus is viable outside the womb, but the point of viability is becoming earlier and earlier thanks to medical progress, so it’s a rather arbitrary argument.  The only clearly definable moment is conception itself.  After that, the new human grows continuously, every day becoming more developed and more recognizably human. So from an ethical perspective, we simply cannot risk the possibility that this is a human being that is destroyed by abortion.  Besides, our medical knowledge and technology is far greater than it was in 1973 when Roe v. Wade happened.  Our legislation needs to catch up with our awareness of fetal development.

Side note: by the same logic, pro-lifers cannot support in vitro fertilization.  Creating embryos in a lab and then putting them in the uterus, hoping one will stick is still murder and today often becomes a process nothing short of eugenics.  I understand that the inability to conceive is the source of pain for many women, but this isn’t the way to solve it.

Now that we’ve established that abortion is wrong because it ends an innocent human life, let us discuss the other reasons abortion is wrong.  Abortion is anti-woman, “my body, my choice” be damned.  There has been a lot of talk since Michelle Williams’ acceptance speech at the Golden Globes.  And the bottom line is this: feminists tell us that in order for women to have successful careers, to achieve their dreams, and to live full lives, they need to have access to abortion, should they become pregnant at an inopportune time.  Feminists would have you believe that a woman could not possibly have a career AND children, that if she has a baby she won’t be able to finish her college degree or hit whatever milestone she’s aiming for.  But the pro-life movement says “no, women are strong and capable. Women can take responsibility for their actions and either give up for adoption or (courageously and admirably) raise the child which has been given to them.  Sacrifices will have to be made, but I believe in women and their ability.

Although supporters of legalized abortion repeatedly claim that abortion has minimal effect on the woman’s physical or mental health, there is enough evidence on the contrary that one cannot just brush it aside as statistical noise.  “Abortion is consistently associated with elevated rates of mental illness compared to women without a history of abortion…” (reference )  I’ve heard enough stories from and about women who had abortions and never fully recovered or found it difficult to conceive a child later on that I believe we as a society can do so much better for women.  Though my evidence is anecdotal perhaps, it ought to be clear that no matter how “safe, legal, and rare” abortion is, it hurts women and always will.

Although as a Christian, I think abstinence should be encouraged, I FULLY support access to affordable nonabortive birth control to prevent pregnancies from occurring in the first place.  But the choice is made before sex.  If you are old enough to have sex you are old enough to understand and take responsibility for the consequences, because no birth control method (save abstinence) is 100% effective (and don’t you dare come at me with “well what if a nine-year-old is raped by a family member…” That is a worst-case scenario, and I forget if it was Ben Shapiro or someone else who said it, but if you have to use a worst-case scenario to justify your point, you may need to rethink your position.  What about rape?

I could go on about all the other abortion connected issues: the unnecessity of late-term abortions, the high-demand for newborns to adopt, the way a pro-abortion society is an anti-minority society, the atrocity of Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood, or the sidelining of men in the abortion debate, but of course it has all been said before.

My goal in writing this post is not to change anyone’s mind.   I can add nothing to the debate on abortion save my voice to cry out against this monstrous violation of human rights. We cannot be silent while our young brothers and sisters are murdered before they can even scream to defend themselves.  The argument against abortion is not one based upon religion, as many believe.  It is an argument based on science and basic human ethics.  We should all value human life, be we atheists or Christians or Jews or Muslims or whatever else. Let us not be remembered as people who stood idly by while innocent blood was shed.  Until the laws change to protect unborn children, or until the event of my earthly death, I will not be apathetic.  I will not be silent.  And neither should you.

Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.  –John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St. Andrews