I get so weary of yet another bunch of old white guys trying to restrict a woman’s right to make a difficult decision, with her medical professional, what to do with her own body. This has irked me for many years.
As we know, time after time, these legislators only have one reason to pass these restrictive laws: Religion. There is no other rational argument for telling a woman she cannot have a medical procedure. And this is one of the best examples of our critical need for Separation of Religion and State.
Now, I know many people of faith who are strong supporters of a woman’s right to choose. And, I know some people of faith who are strongly anti-abortion. I usually avoid the conversation. In some ways this is the most hot-button cultural issue of our time. So, it’s not really possible to avoid. I’ve heard evangelicals say this is the main reason they elected the Faux President.
Anyway, I’m not going to spend more time on this here, but wanted to share one of the main responses I have to people who believe they are “protecting the unborn,” the “most vulnerable” and proudly vote “Right to Life.”
My response to the “Right to Life” believers:
IF I saw how you stood for the poorest among us, homeless people, refugees, those with mental illness and the elderly … IF I would see you standing to defend vulnerable kids bullied for being gay, lesbian or trans … IF you could show your great compassion for these (“the least of these”) I may gain some respect for your beliefs.
IF we could observe how you stand strong for Women’s Rights, equality and justice for women in all spheres of our culture (including your own faith community), I might have more respect for your beliefs.
IF we would see your care for ALL living things on the earth, the most defenseless against the senseless killing of the innocent creatures, maybe I could understand.
IF you showed the same kind of passionate defense for Living, Breathing Beings, human and non-human, that you show for “the unborn,” I might begin to respect your views and your faith. Otherwise, I cannot.
btw, some argue that it’s not just about religion. “A woman will feel guilty for years,” they say. Really? And you would know that? Let me ask: If there is any guilty feeling, where does that guilt come from? Reflect on that. Chances are, time and again, the guilt comes from the best source ever invented for generating guilt: religious faith.
How do you respond to the so-called “Right to Lifers”?
Friendly Freethinker 
I respond by turning the tables around to miscarriages. If you include all the fertilized eggs that fail to implant, there are far more of them than there are abortions, in fact far more of them than live births.
So, to the christian I ask: Do you believe every fertilized egg has a “soul” from the moment of conception?
If it does, and the vast majority of those eggs naturally fail to come to term, what happens to all those unborn “souls”?
Do you think your god sends them to hell? Or does he send them to heaven? Or does he recycle them for the future? Or does your god already know which zygotes are going to come to full term, and only put souls in those and not the others? (And does your god treat the “soul” of an aborted zygote any differently, and why would a just god do that?)
If you think your god sends them to hell, then you need to rethink whether your god is good. Or whether you should be worshiping it.
If he sends them to heaven, and if most of the people who are born fail to believe correctly and wind up in hell, then why isn’t the kindest thing to abort all the pregnancies, so they all go to heaven?
And if you trust that your god will do what’s kindest and best for all those “souls” that miscarry, then why aren’t you trusting him in the same way about abortion? Don’t you trust your god to do what’s best?
But the christians aren’t listening to logic, because noisy emotional opposition to abortion has become a tribal marker belief, and it’s more important to them to proclaim loudly that they are part of the tribe than it is to actually think through the logic of what they have been told to believe.
Cogent responses. And, as you say, it’s not about logic so mostly falls on deaf ears. I also have imagined for years a heaven jammed full of cells and fetuses. How does God handle all that?
Well said Ubi Kudos to your logic and sense of implication.
Great post Chris I have used a similar response to my pro-life adversaries who are really, pro-life as defined by a Iron-age morality extrapolated 3000 years later. It is really pro-my beliefs about abortion as world wide support of life at all levels of existence would make you a Jainist who killed nothing, that they could see. This is also uninformed by science particularly if you have a microscope, but this regard for the phenomena of all living beings evolving from inorganic matter has at least pre-science rational consistency and worshipping the awesomeness of life. .
Yes, Marty, your comment makes sense. And, another tack I sometimes take is to point out that Nobody “likes” abortion or wants Anyone to have to go through any medical procedure. Therefore, we can suggest to a “lifer” that freer access to birth control might help, and of course, they often don’t support that either.