Personhood and abortion regulation

[Elizium23]

I recently encountered a site that has opened my eyes to another facet of the abortion debate: prolifeprofiles.com.

This site ranks political candidates and other pro-life personalities and organizations in four tiers, based on their adherence to the campaign to recognize personhood for unborn children, vs. their adherence to abortion regulations that seek to limit or restrict how abortions can be performed.

The site offers up some pretty shocking rankings. There are not many easily recognizable names in Tier 1 - Personhood Now! Conversely, there are quite a few notable names in Tiers 2, 3, and 4 - Personhood Never. The assigned tiers of certain political candidates may interest you here. It interests me that many notable pro-life figures are in Tier 2 and even Tier 3.

The site asserts that those who advocate for regulation and restriction of abortion by legislation such as mandatory reporting and the ban on partial-birth abortions do nothing to actually limit abortion, but rather make it acceptable by essentially ending with verbiage that sounds like “… and then you can kill the baby.” American Right to Life agrees with this position.

Personally, I am shocked and chastened by these facts. I thought it was a good thing to be advocating to limit abortion by regulating it. I never thought that it could be “pruning the abortion weed and strengthening its root”. I will certainly change my outlook on so-called pro-life candidates because of this, and I am rethinking my support for abortion regulation. I think I need to resolve to be a strong “Personhood Now” pro-lifer.

 

[_Abyssinia]

Shocked at that statement by American Right To Life considering that there is evidence that pro life state laws reduce abortion rate. Reduced abortion means less revenue for the abortion clinics. I think what American Right To Life probably means is that they want abortion to be erased from society completely, and people may feel a sense of apathy with abortion and not work as hard to get abortion out of society if people are relaxed in the sense that abortion is being limited by state laws. I understand that opinion, but abortion restriction laws do reduce abortion, and are worth supporting. Mississippi has one abortion clinic left because of focus on abortion restriction laws. You can practically wipe out abortion in a state with those laws. There should be a state and a national focus on abortion law

 

[dmelosi]

Looking at the site it only shows republicans. Does it rank democrats too or is it just a site to slam republicans?

 

[Joe_5859]

I recently encountered a site that has opened my eyes to another facet of the abortion debate: prolifeprofiles.com.

I’m sorry, but any group who puts people like Fr. Pavone and Jill Stanek in a “Personhood Whenever” category has failed my litmus test of credibility. I find no reason to take them seriously or consider their “rankings” as anything more than arbitrary based on their personal definition of what it means to be “pro-life.”

It seems to me like it is one pro-life group’s (American Right to Life, who owns and operates the site) way to snub other pro-life people who aren’t doing things exactly the way that they want to do them. We have enough to deal with in fighting the broader culture. Why they feel a need to create such a ranking to undermine the efforts of other pro-life groups and people is beyond me.

The only thing that site makes me do is lose respect for ARTL. If that’s the way they think the war against abortion is going to be won, then I very much doubt their ability to make good decisions.

I would very much encourage people to approach this site with extreme caution. Do not allow their arbitrary ranking system to influence your thoughts on this extremely important issue.