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| This image is from the Priests for Life website. |
The personally-opposed-but-pro-choice position is logically inconsistent or an example of barbarism. It must be one or the other.
Here's why: If a person believes that human life begins at conception, then the unborn are individual human beings deserving of rights and protection equal to that of a human being already born. If one recognizes that reality, then one cannot also say that it should be legal for people to kill those human beings. The unborn are not entitled to rights and also not entitled to rights.
The question is not a matter of making an individual choice that belongs to another. No. Some choices are allowed by law. Other choices are not. When a law forbids a particular action, that is not a matter of making a person less free. All of law limits behavior based on our collective agreement of what is right and wrong. To say that the unborn are human beings is to say that their lives must be protected just as all human lives are protected by law.
If one believes that the unborn are human beings, as is the case with declaring oneself pro-life, and to also believe that a mother ought to be able to legally choose to end that life, is to embrace barbarism. If one is pro-life, an unborn baby is no less human than a newborn or a person of any age. To say that it ought to be legal to kill another person, of any age, is barbaric. To take that position is no different than proposing the legality of killing newborns. Remember we are talking about people who describe themselves as pro-life, believing that human life begins at conception. You cannot believe that the unborn baby is a human person and also believe that it should be legal to kill that person without embracing a certain barbarism.
That being said, let's remember that the waters of this discussion have become very muddied. Those who support abortion so-called rights have wrapped the issue in questions of freedom, personal autonomy, and medical privacy. These are all smokescreens that have caused a great many people to become confused about the sanctity of human life and our responsibilities as moral beings. I believe many people have not really given the issue much thought. It's a very important issue. I pray for the day that the clouds will be lifted and people will actually think this through and see the issue clearly. The biology is obvious. The unborn are human individuals and their lives must be protected.
