Pro-life

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(Abortion in the Bible?)
(Racism?: citation needed)
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After [[Roe v. Wade]] in 1973, the largely [[Protestant]] [[religious right]] latched onto abortion as a holy crusade and made it a core part of conservative politics, conveniently forgetting the other issues.  Mostly their opposition to abortion seems to stem from them seeing it as part of a [[feminism|feminist]] plot to empower women with control over their own reproductive rights, and with the [[sexual revolution]] more generally.  [[Jerry Falwell]] and his [[Moral Majority]] played a big role in making abortion a [[moral panic]] among conservatives and evangelical Christians starting in the 1970s and 80s.  Today, being "pro-life" is almost a given among members of evangelical [[megachurch|megachurches]], with dissenting views on abortion met with accusations of near-heresy.  It is used as a wedge issue (or a single-issue litmus test) to convince many who otherwise hold liberal, moderate, or libertarian politics, to vote [[Republican]].
 
After [[Roe v. Wade]] in 1973, the largely [[Protestant]] [[religious right]] latched onto abortion as a holy crusade and made it a core part of conservative politics, conveniently forgetting the other issues.  Mostly their opposition to abortion seems to stem from them seeing it as part of a [[feminism|feminist]] plot to empower women with control over their own reproductive rights, and with the [[sexual revolution]] more generally.  [[Jerry Falwell]] and his [[Moral Majority]] played a big role in making abortion a [[moral panic]] among conservatives and evangelical Christians starting in the 1970s and 80s.  Today, being "pro-life" is almost a given among members of evangelical [[megachurch|megachurches]], with dissenting views on abortion met with accusations of near-heresy.  It is used as a wedge issue (or a single-issue litmus test) to convince many who otherwise hold liberal, moderate, or libertarian politics, to vote [[Republican]].
 
==Racism?==
 
 
There is also a subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) racist undertone to some aspects of the pro-life movement, wherein people of a certain paler skin tone fear they are being "out bred" by peoples of certain darker skin tones.  Hence the desire to prevent paler-skinned women from being able to limit their fecundity by any means at all.  (Conversely, within the African-American community there is a notion that abortion is a white plot to destroy African-Americans.)
 
  
 
==My abortion is ethical, all the others aren't==
 
==My abortion is ethical, all the others aren't==

Revision as of 11:23, 27 November 2010

Pro-life is a political neologism (often termed elsewhere as the less emotionally loaded term anti-abortion) that means being in favor of protecting the life of every human fetus regardless of the consequences, and against abortion. The activities, protests and lobbying of "pro-lifers" extend to abortion and embryo research.

Contents

Origin of "pro life"

Because being "pro-life" is now largely considered a conservative stance, it also has a high correlation with support for war and capital punishment and with opposition to potentially life-saving stem cell research or euthanasia. Currently therefore, the term is like an ironic joke; for most pro-lifers, life begins at conception, ends at birth and starts again at brain death. This was originally not the case. The origin of the "pro-life" movement was in the Catholic left during the Vietnam War among Catholic social justice activists, who were opposed to the war, capital punishment, and abortion alike. Those who hold this particular combination today now use the term consistent life ethic.

Post Roe v. Wade

After Roe v. Wade in 1973, the largely Protestant religious right latched onto abortion as a holy crusade and made it a core part of conservative politics, conveniently forgetting the other issues. Mostly their opposition to abortion seems to stem from them seeing it as part of a feminist plot to empower women with control over their own reproductive rights, and with the sexual revolution more generally. Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority played a big role in making abortion a moral panic among conservatives and evangelical Christians starting in the 1970s and 80s. Today, being "pro-life" is almost a given among members of evangelical megachurches, with dissenting views on abortion met with accusations of near-heresy. It is used as a wedge issue (or a single-issue litmus test) to convince many who otherwise hold liberal, moderate, or libertarian politics, to vote Republican.

My abortion is ethical, all the others aren't

Of course, members of the "pro-life" movement get abortions too. Frequently the women who picket the clinics. When asked what the fuck, they almost universally say that their own abortion is reasonable. But all the others aren't. Then they go back to clubbing around the head the doctor they got to resolve their own little problem.[1]

Anti-choice women often expect special treatment from clinic staff. Some demand an abortion immediately, wanting to skip important preliminaries such as taking a history or waiting for blood test results. Frequently, anti-abortion women will refuse counseling (such women are generally turned away or referred to an outside counselor because counseling at clinics is mandatory). Some women insist on sneaking in the back door and hiding in a room away from other patients. Others refuse to sit in the waiting room with women they call "sluts" and "trash."

Direct Action

One lunatic fringe of the pro-life movement turns the idea of "pro-life" so far on its head that they take what they call direct action and are willing to murder physicians who perform abortions and plant bombs in abortion clinics.

Abortion in the Bible?

It would seem to be possible to quote mine the Bible to support either side of the argument. [2] (No surprise there perhaps.) But all of the verses referred to seem to require substantial interpretation in order to get the required meaning, and are only of interest to one particular religious group.

Some pro-choicers claim that abortion is mentioned in the Bible, in Numbers 5:11-31. Called "the Adultery Test" the passage is an instruction to priests on how to deal with a woman accused of adultery. The curse of the "bitter water" appears to refer to making the woman barren, rather than causing her to abort: "if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will then be free and conceive children." (Numbers 5:28)

15: "the man shall then bring his wife to the priest, and shall bring"..."a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of memorial, a reminder of iniquity." 17 "and the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel; and he shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water."
24 "Then he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings a curse, so that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness. 27: "When he has made her drink the water, then it shall come about, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness, and her abdomen will swell and her thigh will waste away, and the woman will become a curse among her people. 28: But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will then be free and conceive children."[1]

Pro-lifers to the contrary are usually likely to quote Jeremiah 1:5 ("Before I formed you in the womb I knew you"), which has overtones of Calvinist predestination, and Deuteronomy 30:19 ("Therefore choose life, that you and your children may live"), which in context is about faith in God and has little to do with abortion.

Pro-life individuals and organizations

See also

Footnotes

  1. Joyce Arthur, "The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion": When the Anti-Choice Choose
  2. Biblical abortion references
Abortion articles on RationalWiki
Abortion - Fetus/Fœtus - Gonzales v. Carhart - Nuremberg Files - Pro-life - Pro-choice - Essay:Rhetorical analysis of abortion essays - Roe v. Wade - Schlafly, breast cancer and abortion - The Silent Scream - Barnett Slepian - Essay:Where do you fall in the abortion debate?
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