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Friday, April 28, 2017

Pro-birth or Pro-death

A Catholic Nun Perfectly Explains the Major Hypocrisy of the “Pro-Life” Argument -- The linked article says that a “Catholic nun’s explanation of the term ‘pro-life’ from 2004 is resurfacing after recent antiabortion events.” Joan Chittister, a Catholic nun, made the point back then on PBS’s Now that “being against abortion doesn’t mean you’re pro-life.” Chittister stated, “I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.”

Here are some things wrong with the quote, especially as it is used to forward the cause of abortion.

What’s the opposite of pro-birth? Pro-death. While there is a wider moral scope than just being pro-birth, surely we do want to be pro-birth rather than pro-death!

Where is the proof that those who oppose abortion don’t want a child to be fed, educated, and housed? The broader conversation is not needed if we adopt the pro-death platform! None of those children will need to be fed, educated, or housed. (Many of them won’t even get a decent burial.) Is that what is wished for? Only beginning from the pro-birth position is the broader conversation of pro-life relevant.

And, yes, we do need to have that broader conversation.

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