- Even if the unborn are human beings, they have fewer rights than the woman. No one should be expected to donate her body as a life support system for someone else
Answer:
Once we grant that the unborn are human beings, it should settle the question of their right to live.
The right to live doesn’t increase with age and size, otherwise toddlers and adolescents have less right to live than adults.
The comparison between baby’s rights and mother’s rights is unequal. What is at stake in abortion is the mother’s lifestyle, as opposed to the baby’s life.
Is it reasonable for society to expect an adult to live temporarily with an inconvenience if the only alternative is killing a child.
- Every person has the right to choose. It would be unfair to restrict a woman’s choice by prohibiting abortion.
Answer:
Any civilized society restricts the individual’s freedom to choose whenever that choice would harm an innocent person. A man’s choice to rape has not considered the harmful affects to the other person – so it become unlawful.
“Freedom to choose” is too vague for meaningful discussion; we mus always ask, “Freedom to choose what?”
People who are prochoice about abortion are often not prochoice about other issues with less at stake.
The one-time choice of abortion robs someone else of a lifetime of choices and prevents him from exercising his rights.
Everyone is prochoice when it comes to the choice prior to pregnancy and after birth. Men and women are free to choose to abstain from sex, or to use birth control or to do neither. But when a woman is pregnant the choice she has made has produced a new human being.
Nearly all violations of human rights have been defended on the grounds of the right to choose. Nearly every movement of oppression and exploitation – from slavery, to prostitution, to pornography, to child abuse, to drug dealing, to abortion – has labeled itself prochoice. The women don’t choose rape. The blacks didn’t choose slavery. The Jews didn’t choose the ovens. The babies don’t choose abortion.
- Every woman should have control over her own body. Reproductive freedom is a basic right.
Answer:
Since about a half abortions are female a million females a year do not have control over their own bodies, but are taken in abortion.
Not all things done with a person’s body are right, nor should they all be legally protected. My hand is part of my body yet I cannot use it to strike you, steal from you or hurt an innocent child. The key question is whether what is done with one person’s body brings harm to others. Clearly abortion does.
Pro-lifers consistently affirm true reproductive rights. Reproduction takes place at conception, not at birth. “Abortion rights” are not “reproductive rights” but “child-killing rights”.
Even pro-choicers must acknowledge that the “right to control one’s body” argument has no validity if the unborn is a human being.
Too often “the right to control my life” becomes the right to hurt and oppress others for my own advantage.
Control over the body can be exercised to prevent pregnancy in the first place.
It is demeaning to a woman’s body and self-esteem to regard pregnancy as an unnatural, negative, and “out of control” condition.
- Abortion is a decision between a woman and her doctor. It is no one else’s business. Everyone has a constitutional right to privacy
Answer:
Does one person’s right to privacy outweigh another person’s right to live? Of course not.
Privacy is never an absolute right, but is always governed by other rights. A husband beating his wife and saying, “What I do in the privacy of my home is no one else’s business but mine.” Killing done in private is no more acceptable nor less destructive than killing done in public.
The encouragement or assistance of a doctor does not change the nature, consequences, or morality of abortion.
Surely the man also has a right to be heard, to be a part of the decision making process. His life will also be affected by the decision.
- It’s unfair for an unmarried woman to have to face the embarrassment of pregnancy or te pain of giving up a child for adoption.
Answer:
Pregnancy is not a sin. Society should not condemn and pressure an unmarried mother into abortion, but should help and support her.
The poor choice of premarital sex is never compensated for by the far worse choice of killing an innocent human being.
One person’s unfair or embarrassing circumstances do not justify violating the rights of another person.
Adoption is a fine alternative that avoids the burden of child raising, while saving a life and making a family happy.
The reason that adoption may be painful is the same reason that abortion is wrong –a human life is involved. “What kind of mother would I be to give up a child for adoption?” The irony is that a mother who would not give away her child because he is too precious will instead kill the same child.
- Abortion rights are fundamental for the advancement of women. They are essential to having equal rights with men.
Answer:
Early feminists were pro-life, not pro-choice. For example Susan B. Anthony referred to abortion as “child murder”. Elizabeth Cady Stanton said, “it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we wish.”
Some active feminists still vigorously oppose abortion. Alice Paul drafted the original version of the Equal Rights Amendment and referred to abortion as “the ultimate exploitation of women.”
Women’s rights are not inherently linked to the right to abortion. How can women ever lose second-class status as long as they are seen as requiring surgery in order to avoid it? Medical technology is offered as a solution to achieve equality. The premise is wrong.
Some of the abortion-rights strategies assume female incompetence and subject women to ignorance and exploitation. The pro-choice groups oppose efforts to require by law that abortion be treated like every other surgery when it comes to informing the patient of its nature and risks. They do not want women to make informed choices after being presented with the facts.
- The circumstances of many women leave them no choice but to have an abortion.
Answer:
Saying they have no choice is not being pro-choice, but pro-abortion. Studies confirm that many women feel pressured into abortions.
Those who are truly pro-choice must present a woman with a number of possible choices, rather than just selling the choice of abortion.
“Abortion or misery” is a false portrayal of the options: it keeps women from pursuing, and society from providing, positive alternatives. It is a terrible thing to present women with inadequate choices, leaving them in an apparent no-win situation.
- I’m personally against abortion, but I’m still pro-choice. It’s a legal alternative and we don’t have the right to keep it from anyone.
Answer:
To be pro-choice about abortion is to be pro-abortion. You can be against rape, but if you are pro-choice you leave the person to decide. We are against child abuse but being pro-choice we defend our neighbour’s right to abuse his child if that is his choice.
What is legal is not always right. Civil law does not determine morality. Law or no law, either abortion has always been right and always will be, or it has always been wrong and always will be. Truth always stands.