Read the voice of a young woman who wants to provide abortions though she doesn’t think it is morally right:
I agree that ending an unwanted pregnancy is a tragedy. When I advocate for reproductive rights, for choice, I don’t claim that abortion is morally acceptable. I think that it’s a very private, intensely personal decision.
I think this sort of argument does sway a lot of people. She’s making the case for compassionate killing, and if we as a culture didn’t think abortion was compassionate, I don’t think we would offer them.
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I wondered if you have read some of the latest comments on your April 24th blog. It would be nice to get the real message out on this scam artist.
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We need to hear the words of Stephanie Gray on this point. She reasons, very logically, why we cannot put the emphasis on the woman in the abortion debate. Putting the woman ahead of the unborn child puts us right into the same camp as the pro-aborts, because compassion becomes the guiding principle.
The abortion debate is, first and foremost, a debate about rights and the rights of the child must be upheld. We can be compassionate for the woman, without dealing death to her child. But the right to life is the key issue here and must be seen as the essence of the debate.
I wholeheartedly agree that the pro-life position is nothing without its basis in the rights of the child. I do, however, think that it can be wise and quite necessary to “put the emphasis on the woman” at times.
As Andrea noted, many people are swayed by this kind of argument. We are not, because to us it completely misses the point in ignoring the rights of the unborn. I think to people whose viewpoints are first and foremost woman-centred, they feel like only talking about the child misses the point in the same way. So I think it can make sense to present the pro-life position from a pro-woman point of view first, to show them that being pro-life does not require dropping your compassion for women (which to them would seem as absurd as it would to us to drop our concern for the unborn).
I am not suggesting that we in any way water down our message, but that we encourage people to be open to our message.
That young woman will feel that way until she meets a woman for whom ending her pregnancy was not “a tragedy.” Then she’ll meet another, and another, and since she started out thinking abortion is not morally acceptable in the first place, her thoughts will begin to shift. If I still believed that every abortion was the end result of an agonizing mental and emotional struggle, I probably wouldn’t be here.