Abortion Flashcards
If abortion is outlawed, women will go to jail.
What’s wrong with a law that says you can’t kill innocent human beings, or else there will be consequences?
What should happen to a woman who gets an abortion? Jail? Death sentence?
That depends on the specifics of the case. The abortion law will be tried by the same constitutional standard by which all other laws are adjudicated. It could be classified under a lesser degree of murder based on the stage of pregnancy.
What about having to change the laws in all 50 states?
Most states already have existing laws against the killing of fetuses; the only exception is abortion…so not much would change in terms of laws.
How are fetal protection laws and abortion contradictory?
The act of murdering an innocent human being is punished in one instance but glorified in another instance
“Laws can’t stop all abortions”
No, but they will stop most; rape laws don’t stop all rapes, does that mean we should legalize it? What makes you think most women won’t follow the law?
“The Bible is silent on abortion and pro-lifers should be too”
• It’s correct that the word ‘abortion’ is not in the Bible, but we can still draw proper inferences
“Jesus never said anything about…”, “the Bible is silent about…”
By that logic, are we expected to believe that anything not expressly forbidden in the Bible is automatically okay?
“ESCR is more promising than adult stem cell research”
Is that true? How many diseases is ESCR currently treating and how many is ASCR treating?
• as of 2009, ASCR is treating 75 known diseases, ESCR is treating none
“Calling all cloning ‘reproductive’ confuses two very different things—therapeutic cloning to treat disease and reproductive cloning to make babies”
All cloning is reproductive because all cloning produces a new human embryo; the only difference is how the new human is treated
• Do you know how cloning is done? And how is the specific act different in either case?
“The unborn are human but they are not persons”
By that logic, you believe there exists a specific group of human beings who can be set aside to be killed while others can’t?
• how did you conclude that there is a difference between a ‘human’ and a ‘person’?
“Embryos and fetuses have no desire to go on living and therefore have no right to life”
Slaves, due to cultural conditioning, may not have a desire to be free (similar to Israel in Egypt); but they are still entitled to it due to their human status—its an inalienable right of humans
“All truth is socially constructed in language communities”
Does that mean we cannot get outside of language to know what is truly real?
“Pro-lifers are hypocritical if they don’t adopt unwanted babies”
How does my unwillingness to adopt give someone the right to kill an unwanted baby?
“Those abortion photos are fake”
What does a real abortion photo look like?
What is the moral implication of a pro-choicer being offended by an abortion photo?
If abortion is not morally wrong, then there is little reason to be offended by an abortion photo
“Back alley abortions”
The law is supposed to make it more risky for one person to kill another innocent person…that’s the point. We don’t legalize crimes to make it safer for criminals to commit crimes.
“Widespread resistance to abortion laws”
Are we only supposed to protect people as long as it’s not too difficult or unpopular to do so? Can we do that for minorities?
“Women will be forced to have illegal abortions”
No one will force them, they choose it
What are the stats for pre and post Roe v Wade abortion totals in the United States?
Prior to 1967 there were about 210K illegal abortions (Barbara Syska, et al, “An Objective Model for Estimating Criminal Abortions…”, cited in Klusendorf, 158). Within seven years of legalization, the number of legal abortions rose to over 1.2 million annually (Stanley K Henshaw, et al, “Abortion Services in the United States…”, cited in Klusendorf, 158)
Who was Dr. Mary Calderone?
Former medical director for PP
Give two citations for the claim that the vast majority of abortions are elective rather than medically necessary to save the mother’s life
1) Akinrinola Bankole, et al, “Reasons Why Women Have Induced Abortions: Evidence from 27 Countries,” International Family Planning Perspectives, 1998, cited in Klusendorf, 30)
2) Dr. Warren Hern in his 1984 book, Abortion Practice (written 1990), which is a standard medical teaching text on late term abortion procedures
Name two embryology textbooks which claim that the embryo is the first stage of human development
1) The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology by Keith Moore and T. V. N. Persaud (2008)
2) Langman’s Embryology, 5th ed. by T. W. Sadler (1993) (Cited in Klusendorf, 35-36)
Which former president of PP claimed that life began at birth and where is that found?
Dr. Allen Guttmacher in his 1933 book, Life in the Making…
Tolerance is a virtue if and only if…
…people agree with you.