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Why Find Common Ground?
“Women can be in situations where having a baby would ruin her life. I think it’s a woman’s right to end her pregnancy.” He seems to want to support women in difficult situations who want to make their problems go away by having an abortion. How do you respond?
- But she’s not just ending a pregnancy, she’s killing her baby. Life begins at conception. Killing a baby in the womb is just wrong and having a baby is a gift from God, not a problem to be eliminated.”
He hears: You’re wrong, I’m right. No one should think that a baby would be a problem instead of a gift. - I know women can be in difficult situations, and they would just want the pregnancy to go away. If they feel they just can’t face the situation alone, abortion seems like their only choice. But many women don’t know that help is available for them; they don’t have to face the situation alone. Without that support they have the abortion. But while abortion takes away the problems that having the baby might have, abortion brings its own problems. They very often come to really regret it, and it can change their life in very negative ways. I think abortion is wrong because killing a child within the womb is wrong, but also because it is so harmful to women. He hears: I understand, but abortion harms women too; help is available for them and I care about both of them.
Abortion is NEVER medically necessary.
Pregnancy can certainly present serious medical problems, and the pregnancy needs to end. But the baby doesn’t have to be killed. The baby can be removed from the uterus, but that’s not the same as an abortion, where the purpose of the surgery is to kill the child. Whatever can be done to help the baby survive should be done, just as it would be done for any other premature delivery. It is never necessary to deliberately kill the baby.
The picture on the left shows a tiny baby born prematurely, and the same baby 6 months later.
If it is a tubal pregnancy or the baby is just too young, we may not have the technology to be able to save them, but we still don’t need to actively kill them.
In the case of a miscarriage, the baby is already dead, and the process to remove any remaining tissue inside the uterus is not an abortion.
Getting to the Root Cause
What is it that drives the “need” for abortion? The majority of Americans (including half of U.S. Christians and 84% of those not religiously affiliated) believe that casual sex (not in a committed relationship) is acceptable some or most of the time. Conception can fail for a variety of reasons. Since 83% of abortions are chosen by unmarried women, the pregnancy is often the result of casual sex.
With lack of support or even pressure from the father, abortion is seen as a need. The root cause, however is casual sex, or lack of chastity. If parents, churches, and schools were to use the resources available to effectively convey the value of chastity, the perceived “need” for abortion would be greatly reduced. Without the influence of that perception, it would be easier for the majority of society to accept the truth of the value and right to life of the preborn child.
We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said to be.
George Bernard Shaw