What Does It Mean To Be Pro-Life?

The recent passage of the Alabama bill banning abortion in all cases except for the life of the mother has not only caused an uproar among those advocating for abortion but has caused some in the Pro-life movement to suggest that it has gone too far.  There are some who argue that exceptions should have been carved out for rape and incest.

The rape and incest exception on its surface is a compelling argument.  Who would presume to tell a woman who has endured the horror of rape to prolong her mental anguish through a nine-month pregnancy?  Who would want to explain to a child conceived in incest the origins of their parentage?  These are terrible things to contemplate.  But there is one thing worse than these situations and that is ending the life of a child.

We in the Pro-life movement must ask ourselves why we are Pro-life.  The name of our movement should answer that question.  We are for life.  And if we are to be effective in our argument for eliminating abortion, must hold to the belief that life begins at conception.  We must claim that it begins at that moment when a unique DNA code is created.  It is upon that basis that we can seek legal standing for the child in the womb.  DNA has already been established in our legal system as a means for incriminating or exonerating individuals accused of crimes.  DNA eliminates the absurdity of women claiming that the child in their womb is a part of their body akin to a tumor.  An objective autopsy of a child killed in an abortion would identify it in a court of law as a unique being, not a biological piece of the mother.

Life as defined by human DNA created at conception removes all debate about viability, cognitive ability, or the soul.  It is the only way to achieve the decisive victory that is necessary to fully end the horror of abortion.

But if we are to take our stand on personhood at conception, we must remain consistent.  Our legal system does not hold children guilty for the crimes of their parents.  But the exceptions many who claim to be Pro-life are advocating would go even further than that.  We don’t execute rapists, yet many would issue a death sentence to the child of rape.  We don’t execute those who engage in incest, yet we would kill a child created under such circumstances.

But what do you tell the woman who was raped?  The problem is that our society has devalued life to the point where abortion has become the natural decision in this case.  In past generations, it would be unthinkable for a woman to kill her unborn child, even if it was conceived in rape.  It would not even enter her mental calculus.  We have bought into a narrative constructed by those who have made abortion mainstream that has made bringing a child conceived in rape to term a greater emotional horror for the mother than the horror of killing her own child.  And let us not forget that the child is only half the product of the rapist.  The other half is from the mother.

But what about the potential for severe mental and physical deformities for a child conceived in incest?  Should we not end that potential before it even manifests?  That line of thinking opens the door for abortion in cases of any kind of deformity or disability detected during the course of a pregnancy.  It leads us to issuing death sentences to human beings who we deem incapable of having a proper quality of life.  We claim it as an act of mercy, but who are we to judge what the future would hold for them if given the chance to live?  What medical and technological breakthroughs could occur in their lifetimes to heal such disabilities or provide functionality?

But what of the mental state of the child upon learning that they are the product of rape or incest?  We immediately resign ourselves to a worst-case scenario where the individual immediately commits suicide upon learning of their infamous parentage.  Or we assume they will have a miserable life marked by depression and addiction as they grapple with their origin.

Sadly, this does happen.  But it also happens with legitimately conceived children whose parents achieve some level of infamy through either crime or scandal.  There are also plenty of instances where children rise above their dark lineage and have happy, successful lives.

The fact is, those in the abortion movement have overplayed their hand.  In our modern age of effective and readily available birth control, rape, incest, and the health of the mother should be the only possible points of discussion for abortion.  The fact that they are advocating inhuman policies like abortion up to the point of birth or leaving children who survive abortions to die without any medical care points out just how insincere they are when they attempt to trap Pro-lifers in a rape/incest moral conundrum.  They have gone all in on abortion.  If they can convince themselves that a child moments from birth is not a human being with all the rights afford to a human being, you will never when any argument with them regarding viability, cognitive ability, or the soul.  They will always side with whatever is most expedient for the woman carrying the child.
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Therefore, we must be the advocates for the child.  And we must be unwavering advocates, regardless of how that child is conceived.  We have science on our side.  We have the law on our side.  There can be no compromise because any compromise means death for innocent human beings.  And besides, what would compromise look like?  The abortion activists have moved so far to the extreme, that they would have us convinced that going back to unlimited first trimester abortions with regulations for second and third trimester abortions is a victory.  Those are the very conditions that the Pro-life movement had been fighting against for decades prior to the recent radical push for late-term abortions.  Those are the very conditions that have led to millions of dead children.
 
We must stand for life.  We must do so firmly and unapologetically.  We will be called extremists, but that is only because death has become commonplace in our country.  Let us be extremists for life now, so that the day will come when our children and grandchildren will view choosing life as the natural choice.
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