In the first installment of this series we addressed
how important it is to frame the issue by carefully selecting the best language
to convey our pro-lifemessage. We also indicated that there were only five
basic categories of arguments pro-abortion advocates use to support abortion.
Once we have identified the argument and placed it in the appropriate category,
we will be better able to effectively counter the argument.
In the chart that accompanies this article you see the five basic categories.
Over the next few issued of NRL News we will show how, regardless
of the particular words chosen, all pro-abortion arguments fall into one
of these five categories.
The first basic category is "It's not a human being/person, it's just
a blob of tissue." Within this you would place all the following pro-abortion
arguments:
1. The fetus is just a part of the woman's body
2. It's not a baby
3. An egg and a sperm are also human life; the fetus is only a potential
human being
4. It's not a person, it has no meaningful life
5. Don't impose your religion on me
6. A fetus is not a person until quickening
7. Life begins at birth
8. No one can really know that life begins before birth
The list can go on, but the basic argument is that the unborn child is not
a human being, from the moment of fertilization.
The response should always contain scientifically accurate facts about the
generic biology of every member of the species homo sapiens. It should
then apply those facts to the unborn child.
The primary focus of your answer is to restore a very real human face to
that baby.
When you do answer this question be aware that your response will probably
answer other pro-abortion objections as well, since the core of the entire
pro-abortion argument rests upon dehumanizing the baby. You will have defined
the real crux of the debate if you can solidly defend the scientific reality
that these are unborn members of the human family. How?
One simple but effective way is to start with a few "fetal facts."
Highlight the extraordinary amount of new and ever-growing information we
now have about the unborn child's life. Memorize at least three facts about
early fetal life, such as that the heart begins to beat at 18 to 21 days
after fertilization; that there are brain waves at six weeks; or that at
eight weeks all body systems are present, including little fingers and toes!
At this point in your answer it is important to remind your listener that
most abortions take place between the eighth and eleventh week of the pregnancy
- - about six weeks after the baby's heart has started to beat.
Don't be sidetracked by pro-abortion comments that typically come up. The
most common is to dismiss the undeniable facts of prenatal life as merely
a "religious" issue. Do not allow your questioner to discount
the scientific facts of life with misleading beside-the-point rhetoric.
In fact, it is precisely because of modern scientific understanding about
life in the womb that there are people of all faiths, and no faith, working
in the pro-life movement. The cause of the unborn is the ultimate human
rights issue. While it may be tempting, and may in some settings even appropriate,
to engage in a discussion of the theological origins for a person's pro-lifeposition,
usually the religious arguments are just another attempt by pro-abortionists
to evade the powerful truth you are presenting.
Remember, as you go about establishing the humanity of the unborn, encourage
common sense to prevail. For instance, since the baby is genetically unique
at fertilization, it is impossible to say he/she is just another part of
his/her mother's body.
Another theme often put forward is that a baby isn't one of us until there
is "meaningful" life, or until "ensoulment." Once again,
recognize the sidetracking going on. Help your listener to realize that
it is dangerous to apply an arbitrary yardstick of usefulness or other "quality
of life" judgement to determine who will be recognized as human beings
with the right to life and who won't be. Such illogical prejudice opens
the door to redefining any of us out of existence based on someone else's
idea of what is "meaningful" life.
The simple answer to all these related questions begins and ends with the
irrefutable scientific fact that at the moment of fertilization two separate
cells form one new life, genetically distinct in every way from every other
human being on earth. The color of our eyes, the shape of our hands, even
where we put on weight and when we will go bald was programmed into that
one tiny cell that we all began our lives as.
Stick with the "fetal facts" on this one. Throw in a little humor
and horsesense along withsome well-developed images of tiny little faces
sucking tiny littlefingers. It will not be hard totear down walls of apathy
orignorance.