I know the title of this post already has some of you on edge purely because of the subject matter, but let put your mind at ease. This post is not going to make any attempt to persuade you of the moral right or wrong of this issue. My goal is not to convince you one way or another, but simply for you to stay true to your convictions on this issue following your conviction to its full conclusion.
Often when I have discussed this subject with people I hear people saying that they have strong convictions one way or another on whether it is a woman’s right to choose or not, but their convictions on whether their beliefs should be pushed on others is not nearly as strong.
For those that feel abortion is in fact wrong, I hear them say ‘I think that abortion is wrong, but I don’t believe I should push those convictions on others’. My first thought when someone expresses this is asking why they believe abortion is wrong. So if you are of the pro-life stance take a moment and think about this question. Why is abortion wrong?
The pro-life stance believes that abortion is wrong because we believe that a fetus is a human being and so killing it is an act of murder. Again, I am not going to get into why this is the pro-life stance or argue why we believe this, instead I am challenging the ‘I don’t believe I should push those convictions on others’ standpoint of many pro-lifers.
If you believe that the ending of a fetus’ life is in fact an act of murder, then when you say ‘I don’t think I should push my convictions on others’ you are in essence saying ‘I believe murder is wrong, but I don’t believe I should push those convictions on others’. It sounds harsh, but basically you are saying that you feel that Nazi’s killing Jews in WWII were wrong but you don’t think you should push your convictions on others.
If you are going to be logically consistent in saying abortion is wrong then you must also follow through with those convictions in believing that it is wrong for anyone and shouldn’t be allowed even by those who think there is nothing wrong with it.
I realize that there may be something I am missing in this, so please comment and let’s discuss!
The pro-choice side of this issue assumes that we should not push our convictions on others. If it is the woman’s right to chose then no one should push their convictions on her. For the pro-choice side I often here people say ‘I believe abortion is wrong but I don’t believe I should push my convictions on others’.
For those that believe that abortion is a the choice of the woman because it is her body, let me ask you a couple of questions. If a pregnant woman is involved in a car accident with a drunk driver should the drunk driver be convicted of manslaughter?
If it is truly a woman’s right to choose then it is purely dependent on the woman. If the woman wanted to have the child, the drunk driver should be convicted. If the woman did not want the child, then the man should not be convicted because the woman had already determined that the fetus was not a human anyway. Put crudely, if we put aside the pain the woman may have experienced, her trauma, and damage to her car, the man performed the same service Planned Parenthood does when they do surgical abortions. Granted Planned Parenthood does a lot more to help the woman, but the basic main service would have been the same.
One other thing I must to ask pro-choice advocates is this. Do you feel God is wrong or evil for arbitrarily choosing who and who doesn’t survives cancer or survives a plan crash? Do you feel that it is wrong that God chooses some and not others? If you do, what is the reason you feel it is ok for a woman to choose this arbitrarily and not God?
I realize this probably sounds extremely insensitive. I understand that many women choose abortion because they don’t feel ready to raise a child, perhaps they cant afford to take care of the child, they are being forced by friends or family, or even because they were raped. These things are all horrible and I wish I could do more to prevent these dire situations. Abortion is a difficult choice for any woman, even for those who strongly believe it is their right to choose. Those women in situations to choose to have an abortion are in extremely difficult situations. If you or someone you love has ever been in this situation or have had an abortion my heart breaks for you. This is a choice I wish no woman had to face. This post speaks only to the head part of this issue and the heart parts often feel so much more important. Again, my goal here is not to convict you of the right or wrong of your belief, but make you think logically consistent about your view on this issue. If you feel convicted after these questions I believe it is you seeing by answering these questions that something is wrong about your view. Pay attention to that and seek out the truth.
BEARDED DISCIPLE 