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The Pro-Life Movement's Problem With Morality
The Washington Dispatch ^ | June 6, 2003 | Cathryn Crawford

Posted on 06/06/2003 10:32:33 AM PDT by Cathryn Crawford

The Pro-Life Movement's Problem With Morality

Exclusive commentary by Cathryn Crawford

Jun 6, 2003

Making claim to being pro-life in America is like shouting, “I’m a conservative Christian Republican!” from your rooftop. This is partly due to the fact that a considerable number of conservative Christian Republicans are pro-life. It’s hardly true, however, to say that they are the only pro-life people in America. Surprisingly enough to some, there are many different divisions within the pro-life movement, including Democrats, gays, lesbians, feminists, and environmentalists. It is not a one-party or one-group or one-religion issue.

The pro-life movement doesn’t act like it, though. Consistently, over and over throughout the last 30 years, the pro-lifers have depended solely on moral arguments to win the debate of life over choice. You can believe that abortion is morally wrong, yes, and at the appropriate moment, appealing to the emotions can be effective, but too much time is spent on arguing about why abortion is wrong morally instead of why abortion is wrong logically. We have real people of all walks of life in America – Christians, yes, but also non-Christians, atheists, Muslims, agnostics, hedonists, narcissists - and it’s foolish and ineffective for the pro-life movement to only use the morality argument to people who don’t share their morals. It’s shortsighted and it’s also absolutely pointless.

It is relatively easy to convince a person who shares your morals of a point of view – you simply appeal to whatever brand of morality that binds the two of you together. However, when you are confronted with someone that you completely disagree with on every point, to what can you turn to find common ground? There is only one place to go, one thing that we all have in common – and that is our shared instinct to protect ourselves, our humanness.

It seems that the mainstream religious pro-life movement is not so clear when it comes to reasons not to have an abortion beyond the basic arguments that it’s a sin and you’ll go straight to hell. Too much time is spent on the consequences of abortion and not enough time is spent convincing people why they shouldn’t have one in the first place.

What about the increased risk of breast cancer in women who have abortions? Why don’t we hear more about that? What about the risk of complications later in life with other pregnancies? You have to research to even find something mentioned about any of this. The pro-life movement should be front and center, shouting the statistics to the world. Instead, they use Biblical quotes and morality to argue their point.

Don’t get me wrong; morality has its place. However, the average Joe who doesn’t really know much about the pro-life movement - and doesn’t really care too much for the obnoxious neighbor who’s always preaching at him to go to church and stop drinking - may not be too open to a religious sort of editorial written by a minister concerning abortion. He’d rather listen to those easy going pro-abortion people – they appeal more to the general moral apathy that he so often feels.

Tell him that his little girl has a high chance of suffering from a serious infection or a perforated uterus due to a botched abortion, however, and he’ll take a bit more notice. Tell him that he’s likely to suffer sexual side effects from the mental trauma of his own child being aborted and he’ll take even more notice. But these aren’t topics that are typically discussed by the local right-to-life chapters.

It isn’t that the religious right is wrong. However, it boils down to one question: Do they wish to be loudly moral or quietly winning?

It is so essential that the right-to-life movement in America galvanize behind the idea the logic, not morality, will be what wins the day in this fight, because sometimes, despite the rightness of the intentions, morality has to be left out of the game. Morality doesn’t bind everyone together. The only thing that does that is humanness and the logic of protecting ourselves; and that is what has to be appealed to if we are going to make a difference in the fight to lessen and eventually eliminate abortion.

Cathryn Crawford is a student from Texas. She can be reached at feedback@washingtondispatch.com.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: abortion; feminism; humansacrifice; idolatry; prolife; ritualmurder
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To: stands2reason
Yes.

See post #11.

I'm not a moral relativist, though. They would say - "Yes, in most cases." They see things in more grey terms.
261 posted on 06/06/2003 1:43:08 PM PDT by Cathryn Crawford (Save your breath. You'll need it to blow up your date.)
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To: Lazamataz
Don't worry, Laz there's plenty of hot young single conservative partygirls out there...
262 posted on 06/06/2003 1:43:51 PM PDT by stands2reason
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To: Cathryn Crawford
That's why we have to use logic. And instead of relying upon our various different religions to teach moral standards, we must demand that our constitutional 'morality' be taught as a required course for full citizenship, imo.

What do you mean by that, exactly, when it comes to this issue?

As I said at #194:
--- the moral 'logic' that must be used is that of our constitutional due process; --- under this cold logic an unviable baby is not yet a legal person, as it is an inseparable part of its mother.
Thus, abortion cannot be prosecuted as murder until the viablity of the baby is established in a court, before a jury..
- Granted, these are cold hard legal facts, but until someone comes up with a better solution to this moral dilemma, we will have to learn to live with it.
194 -tpaine-

Far too many people in the US of A simply have no clue on what our constitution is all about, morally, or legally..
Naturalized citizens have to pass a simple test on the subject. I think the test should be greatly enlarged and be required in order to vote.

263 posted on 06/06/2003 1:44:02 PM PDT by tpaine (Really, I'm trying to be a 'decent human being', but me flesh is weak.)
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To: Qwerty
What kind of mickey mouse threat is that?

You're right, Mickey would have been a lot tougher.

264 posted on 06/06/2003 1:44:43 PM PDT by Clint N. Suhks
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To: Clint N. Suhks
Using your logic, debate on the issue is pointless. NRL is pointless. Lobbying is pointless. You sound like those people who tell their kids, "You're going to have sex anyway, so here's some condoms!"

You're right, I absolutely do disagree. Apathy kills people.
265 posted on 06/06/2003 1:44:45 PM PDT by Cathryn Crawford (Save your breath. You'll need it to blow up your date.)
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To: Cathryn Crawford
Doesn't the Bible say, "Call no man a fool, lest ye be in danger of hellfire"?

That's about judging whether some will or will not go to hell, a decision only God can make.

But thank you for playing.

266 posted on 06/06/2003 1:47:26 PM PDT by Clint N. Suhks
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To: stands2reason
I was just wondering why noone had brought this up. I personally know of many couples who have been waiting for quite a long time on the adoption list. There are a great many couples out there just waiting to take care of a baby if only someone could be inconvenienced to carry him/her to term and have the courage to let them go.
267 posted on 06/06/2003 1:47:28 PM PDT by cspackler (If you love something, set it free. If it doesn't come back, hunt it down and kill it.)
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To: BamaGirl
falling asleep as the doctor ducks between her legs to begin the procedure

She FELL ASLEEP??? More like pass out from the most intense pain you will ever feel in your life...

268 posted on 06/06/2003 1:47:37 PM PDT by stands2reason
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To: stands2reason
Partying is one thing. Sleeping around is another. :-)
269 posted on 06/06/2003 1:48:26 PM PDT by Cathryn Crawford (Save your breath. You'll need it to blow up your date.)
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To: Lorianne
"The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives." Lorianne, that sentence is construed by you (and likely justice Ginsberg) to mean killing an alive unborn child is somehow a 'reproductive right'. Practicing contraception is a reproductive right, where it is the woman who has control over her body, since her body is the only body involved in her choice. Abortion slaughters the body of a second individual already alive and living its individual lifetime. How is the guarantee of a killing to be construed as an actual right of reproduction, since the 'other' is already alive, not potentially alive? If you can explain that to me without it amounting to killing being touted as a reproductive right, I'll count myself informed.
270 posted on 06/06/2003 1:48:26 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote Life Support for others.)
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To: Cathryn Crawford
Apathy kills people.

I'm pretty ambivalent about that. The whole concept just fills me with ennui.

271 posted on 06/06/2003 1:49:31 PM PDT by Lazamataz (I've decided to cut back my tagline, one word at a)
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To: Cathryn Crawford
Logically,

1. The baby in the womb is alive and meets all the medical and scientific terms of life.

2. The baby in the womb it is human, to argue otherwise is as stupid and illogical as to argue that the moon is made of green cheese.

3. The word "fetus" is a Latin word for child. It is not a medical term for an unborn blob of tissue.

4. To abort it requires that you kill it. If you kill a fetus you kill a child.

5. The intentional killing of a human with forethought and a completele disregard for life is 1st degree murder.

6. The Constitution protects the unborn. Just read it. right there at the top.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

7. Our posterity are those yet to be born. Therefore they have constitutional protection under the 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, and 14th Amendments.

So, logically, killing an unborn baby is both illegal and unconstitutional.

272 posted on 06/06/2003 1:49:46 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Even if the government took all your earnings, you wouldn’t be, in its eyes, a slave.)
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To: Lazamataz
I thought it was so trendy and hip that I was planning to have one, and I'm a man!

ROFL!!!

273 posted on 06/06/2003 1:49:55 PM PDT by stands2reason
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To: aristeides
>>You don't have to be particularly religious to be repelled by murder.<<

Absolutely correct. That's why I agree that we need some other kind of back up facts for those who are not religious.
I've said before that if anyone could get an ultrasound machine outside of abortion clinics no woman would stop that beating heart. (and back it up with some literature on adoption). I saw my daughter's heart beat on an ultrasound machine at 7 weeks.


274 posted on 06/06/2003 1:50:46 PM PDT by netmilsmom (God Bless our President, those with him & our troops)
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To: Cathryn Crawford
Partying is one thing. Sleeping around is another. :-)

Unless you are actually sleeping.

275 posted on 06/06/2003 1:50:55 PM PDT by Lazamataz (I've decided to cut back my tagline, one word at a)
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To: Cathryn Crawford
Using your logic, debate on the issue is pointless. NRL is pointless. Lobbying is pointless. You sound like those people who tell their kids, "You're going to have sex anyway, so here's some condoms!" You're right, I absolutely do disagree. Apathy kills people.

Hyperboly becomes you, in fact you’ve been taking nearly all of my posts out of context. What was that about not being rude to get your point across? Now just stop being a hypocrite and try a rational accusation for once, OK?

276 posted on 06/06/2003 1:51:18 PM PDT by Clint N. Suhks
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To: bayou_billy
The only whay I can see justifying abortion is: 1. Pregnancy by rape.

So you think it's OK to punish the victim of the crime instead of the criminal? Or, punish the child along with the criminal? We don't do that with other crimes, why is rape different?

2. Pregnancy by incest.

Again, do you think punishing the innocent child rather than, or along with, the perpetrator of the crime is OK? Guilt isn't an inherited trait, you have to aquire it yourself, and an unborn child isn't capable of doing that.

3. Life/Death health situation for the mother in question

OK, we have a point of agreement here.

My only problem with making, or rather keeping, that procedure legal is this; who decides when the mother's life is truly at stake, the doctor who wants to abort the baby for a profitable fee? The staff of the hospital which also stands to recieve a hefty payment for the procedure? A panel consisting of all parties who have a financial and/or idiological interest in the abortion being performed? The mother or her family who may not want the baby under any circumstances?

If a satisfactory solution to those questions can be worked out, I'm OK with abortion to save the mother's life. But I don't trust any committed pro-abortionists, be they doctors or others, to be honest and truthful in any such case if they are involved in the decision. Call me a skeptic. Or call me Moe, I answer to either name.

277 posted on 06/06/2003 1:52:17 PM PDT by epow
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To: Clint N. Suhks
You're very welcome. I can quote the Bible with the best of them, Clint.
278 posted on 06/06/2003 1:52:27 PM PDT by Cathryn Crawford (Save your breath. You'll need it to blow up your date.)
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To: Lazamataz
Hey, you'd brag too, if you worked as hard on it as I did!

I figgered....In my youth I was proud of being a bitch, but I got lazy...

279 posted on 06/06/2003 1:52:42 PM PDT by stands2reason
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To: Clint N. Suhks
I don't think I'm the illogical one.

And you neatly avoided all my points and questions. You get an A for effort.
280 posted on 06/06/2003 1:53:33 PM PDT by Cathryn Crawford (Save your breath. You'll need it to blow up your date.)
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