The Pro-Abortion/Pro-Choice Position There are three fundamental premises in “family planning” literature, which give us a clear understanding of their beliefs:
Premise #1 The Literature speaks almost exclusively of a fetus rather than a baby. It speaks very little about pregnancy and focuses largely on the woman’s wants and emotions and the impact of an unwanted pregnancy on her career, her future and her body.
Premise #2 The literature stresses the anguish, pain and difficulty that an unwanted pregnancy brings into a woman’s life. It focuses on situations of rape, incest, and abnormal stress, and highlights the dangers of pregnancy in older women. It justifies “abortion on demand” because of those reasons.
Premise #3 Most importantly, there is a clear distinction between the WHO of the woman and the WHAT of the fetus. It is made clear that the woman is a “Who,” or a person, and the fetus is a “what,” or a mass of tissue. Based on this tenet, the logical conclusion is that a woman should be able to decide when, where and how to deal with a mass of tissue inside her own body.
Summarizing the Pro-Choice Position
Now, if we are to move from a deadlock and violence to dialogue on this issue, we need to understand this presupposition.
IF: A fetus is a mass of tissue (not unlike an appendix or a wisdom tooth), and IF you believe this with all of your heart…
THEN: The removal of that mass of tissue, if it is inconvenient, makes perfect sense. A woman has the complete right to do with it as she wishes.
Anti-Abortion / Pro-Life Position
Pro-Life literature from crisis pregnancy clinics and other “right-to-life” organizations have two basic premises upon which their beliefs are based:
Premise #1 The literature states that life begins at conception. The focus then is on the needs, rights and welfare of the fetus. This life or fetus, is almost always called a baby or a pre-born baby. This presumption is based on a single logic, that from the time of inception, nothing else is added. The embryo simply begins a process of development – a process, in fact, that continues for a number of years outside the womb.
Premise #2 The literature holds that at conception, this life is a human being – not a fully developed human being, but human nonetheless. There is, in fact, no difference between a 5, 6, or 8-month pre-born baby and newborn infants, except location. To kill either is to kill a human being. Summarizing the Pro-Life Position All of the debates, the speeches, the fighting, the emotions, the hated, the gesturing, the protesting, come down to one simple question. Is the fetus fully human life, although not fully developed, or is the fetus a mass of tissue, a mere appendage of the mother’s body.
IF: A fetus is a pre-born human being (not fully developed)…
THEN: It must be protected from externally caused death, under the same ground rules that prohibit all taking of innocent life.
“The Positions” and “Finding Forgiveness” sections excerpted from “Abortion A Thoughtful Analysis” by Chip Ingram and Living on the Edge Ministries.
The debate over abortion boils down to one question: is an unborn child a being or merely a tissue blob?
So much of one’s stance on abortion is based on their level of selfishness. Pro-choicers believe that if someone becomes pregnant and they don’t want to go through the embarrassment of having a baby or physical stress of pregnancy, then they should have the right to kill their baby. The logic of this is extremely self-centered.
Pro-lifers, on the other hand, care about and value the protection human life above the “inconvenience” of pregnancy. This is a selfless desire that wants to see justice and equality for ALL people.