Why Pro-Life?

A lot of people wonder why we are pro-life, and what the pro-life position really is.

What’s the Pro-Life position?

The pro-life position is:

1. Intentionally killing an innocent human being is wrong.

2. Elective abortion is the intentional killing of an innocent human being.

3. Therefore, elective abortion is wrong.

Most people have no problem with the first premise.  The question then becomes: What is the unborn?

Scientifically, the unborn is undeniably an individual, living, human, being – by definition.

• Individual: The unborn is distinct from all other living things, including his/her mother and father.  He/she has their own complete, unique genetic blueprint.
• Living: Life is characterized by metabolism, growth, reaction to stimuli, and the ability to reproduce, all of which the unborn possess.
• Human: The unborn has human DNA with the complete human genetic signature.
• Individual being: He/she is a self-contained, self-integrating living entity with his/her own nature

Therefore, from conception, the unborn has everything necessary to complete all the human developmental stages.  He/she changes only in appearance, not in human nature.

So, either elective abortion kills a defenseless child or not.  If it does, we cannot just stand on the fringes and do nothing.

Some people argue that the unborn are human, but nor persons.  This is faulty logic.  History has been scarred with instances where such a distinction as been made, such as those crimes against African Americans, Aboriginal peoples, women, and Jews.

There are only four differences between the unborn and us:

• Size: When has size had any bearing on our right to life?  A midget has just as much a right to life as does a giant.
• Level of development: People who are less developed are not any less human.  These ideas come from defining people based on what they can do, instead of what they are – human beings.
• Environment: Where one is has no bearing on who one is.  A simple journey of 7 inches down the birth canal cannot change the essential nature of the unborn from a non-person into a person.
• Degree of dependency: If dependency defines personhood, then most of us university students would be considered non-persons, considering our dependency on our parents, bank loans, and the government!

We can do better than abortion!  That’s the pro-life position… every human being is a person, with inestimable dignity and worthy of equal protection.

(The above arguments have been used with permission from  NCLN’s A Right to Know brochure.  www.ncln.ca.)