Question about being Pro-Life

[jackmm]

I really want to follow the Church in its pro-life movement but I have some clarifying questions before doing so:

1. Does the Church seek to illegalize abortion? If it becomes illegalized, won’t that lead to abortions being conducted by more dangerous means, thus creating more dangerous health risks associated with the act?
2. Why don’t we try to end abortion with a more long-term approach? By this, I mean that it’s unreasonable to think that abortions can stop immediately by illegalizing the act, if illegalizing it were even possible. I believe that we should try to provide resources that give women what they need so that abortion is not necessary. I believe that abortion will never cease to exist, so rather than trying to stop it, we should address the root causes such as unprepared pregnancies, premarital sex, and more. We need to encourage people to see the benefits of a morally-stable-sexual life rather than trying to stop their actions (such as abortion) that are deep rooted in habits and beliefs they formed years ago.

As an example, let’s take premarital sex. Ideally, it’s best not to have premarital sex to any degree. However, people will do it anyway. So when they do, shouldn’t we encourage them to be safe about it? Spreading awareness of safety doesn’t encourage sinning, but instead helps those who have already fallen into temptation. If we do not spread awareness for how to safely recover from immoral behaviors, aren’t we encouraging a punitive approach rather than a forgiving one? It seems to me that it would be more of an Old testament approach when we should look more into the redeeming aspects of the New Testament teachings.

Essentially, I believe in a more educational approach, to save people who have already committed themselves to premarital sex or abortion. As humans, we will continue to sin. Rather than stopping it after it’s too late, why don’t we work towards

I am not in open rebellion against the Church. I am devout in my faith and for this reason I want to understand the Church’s teachings as thoroughly as possible. Thank you and God bless.

*edit: grammatical and spelling errors

 

[Kenny_Kamel]

1. I would like to make it a criminal offense to perform abortions. We cannot prevent anyone from committing to have an abortion by whatever means they undertake but the primary culprits providing the means to those who seek to engage in it should be neutralized or face criminal charges.
2. We’re already doing everything you’ve listed.

Honestly everything you’ve stated is preaching to the choir.

 

[ATraveller]

I’m not Catholic but this is my take on it.
If you look at the restrictions being implemented in some US states, we haven’t seen women dying en masse. They could go to another state but most seem to carrying to term.

Sex = babies. Even contraceptives that are considered the most effect can still fail. Maybe people shouldn’t have been sold the lie contraception is 100% effective and people despite knowing there’s still a chance of pregnancy still don’t take responsibility.
You see, abortion and contraception are closely linked:

Ann Furedi, chief executive of BPAS, said: Our data shows that women cannot control their fertility through contraception alone, even when they are using some of the most effective methods.

"Family planning is contraception and abortion.

“Abortion is birth control that women need when their regular method lets them down.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-40520235

Couldn’t someone argue making murder illegal doesn’t stop all murders so maybe we should make it legal and safe? How about selling cigarettes to teens? Maybe we should make it legal and safe?

Encouraging people to sin or behave imprudently isn’t redemptive, it’s destructive.
If it’s not ‘unintended’ pregnancies, it’s STDs. Rates have gone up despite pushing contraceptives onto the masses. That’s not helped when the pathogens are mutating because that’s what they do.

 

[Lea101]

I’m not sure about the stats, maybe someone can help me out here, but I’ve heard that illegal abortions are not more dangerous than legal ones, they’re just done more secretively. It was a myth or something. Again, I hope someone can confirm or deny this.

Anyway, why can’t we do both? Addressing root problems and stopping them from having abortions? If say, white people are going around and killing black people, would we just stand here and say ‘let’s focus on changing hearts’ or would we actually physically stop them from doing so? Abortion is literally killing someone else, hence the urgency.

I do believe in helping women by providing them resources instead of leaving them to fend for themselves, but I don’t think that contradicts my opinion that abortion clinics should be shut down, or at least, government funding for it. I’ve said many times on this forum that we should be working on addressing root problems (eg financial costs, childcare etc), but it doesn’t have to be either or

Saying that people will always murder so we should just teach them to love and respect each other doesn’t make much sense. Ideally we would do both.

Anyway, we don’t prevent one from sinning by letting them commit a different sin (contraception). Their souls are in danger either way. No consequence sex increases the likelihood of one having sex, which increases the likelihood of an unplanned pregnancy anyway.

 

[BornInMarch]

Honestly, I am in favor of criminalizing abortion, punishing everyone involved, and giving it the same punishment we’d give normal murder. Because that’s what it is; murder. Imprisoning murderers sends the message that the victim mattered and that such crimes will not be tolerated; letting murderers walk sends the message that the victim’s life had no value and that such crimes are acceptable.

I’m not ashamed to admit this either, because I know that abortion is murder.

 

[Rau]

Honestly, I am in favor of criminalizing abortion, punishing everyone involved, and giving it the same punishment we’d give normal murder. Because that’s what it is; murder. Imprisoning murderers sends the message that the victim mattered and that such crimes will not be tolerated; letting murderers walk sends the message that the victim’s life had no value and that such crimes are acceptable.

I’m not ashamed to admit this either, because I know that abortion is murder.

The challenge I think is figuring out how to make the transition successfully from the circumstances of “now” to the desired state. Introducing laws that do not have the broad support of the community at large (which would be the case if abortion were deemed legally to be an act of murder) is typically doomed. So - how to get there is the challenge.

 

[BornInMarch]

I know you’re right about this. We must win over the majority of society before we can enshrine the personhood of the pre-birth children in law. God can force everyone to reap what they sow, but we humans are more limited in our abilities.

Unfortunately this will probably take a long time. There was three centuries between Bartolomé de las Casas and Abraham Lincoln.

 

[AdamP88]

Unfortunately you seem to have bought into some of the lies promoted by the abortion lobby.
Christians already do a lot of the stuff you listed in 2. In fairness, pro-abortion people love to say that pro lifers don’t do anything for women and babies. That’s nonsense. Many pro life orgs give women in crisis pregnancy situations financial and practical help.
Contraception generally doesn’t lower the abortion rate either.

Abortion should be illegal. It’s the destruction of an innocent human life. The Church condemns it strongly because of what it is.
The number of abortions that have taken place worldwide in the last 50 years is greater than the number of all the people killed in every war in history.
As far as I can see we should be fighting for nothing less than abolition of abortion.
Women deserve better than abortion anyway.

 

[josh987654321]

The answers are all straight forward when one realizes that abortion is the slaughtering of an innocent defenseless human being. Nothing can justify that.

Terrible hypocrisy on the part of a people who are supposed to uphold their Constitution which is supposed to protect the God given right to life.

“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” is a well-known phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence. The phrase gives three examples of the “unalienable rights” which the Declaration says have been given to all human beings by their Creator, and which governments are created to protect.
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness - Wikipedia

So much for that.

“for the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”

Thank you for reading
Josh

 

[MPat]

Does the Church seek to illegalize abortion? If it becomes illegalized, won’t that lead to abortions being conducted by more dangerous means, thus creating more dangerous health risks associated with the act?

Let’s try out this argument changing abortion to “ordinary” murder. Would legalised murder be done using means less dangerous for murderer (for that’s what “less dangerous” has to mean here)? Probably. Do you think that is a good reason to legalise murder? No? Then why would that be a good reason to keep a specific type of murder (namely, abortion) legal?

By this, I mean that it’s unreasonable to think that abortions can stop immediately by illegalizing the act, if illegalizing it were even possible.

First, even if the law would prove to be completely powerless, it would not be pointless. After making abortion illegal the state would not end up as an accomplice.

Second, even laws that are not effectively enforced do their job to some extent. Prohibition is an example.

Third, no law is not going to exterminate crime completely. “Ordinary” murder is not legal, but it still happens once in a while. It is not a reason to legalise it.

Honestly, I am in favor of criminalizing abortion, punishing everyone involved, and giving it the same punishment we’d give normal murder. Because that’s what it is; murder. Imprisoning murderers sends the message that the victim mattered and that such crimes will not be tolerated; letting murderers walk sends the message that the victim’s life had no value and that such crimes are acceptable.

I’m not ashamed to admit this either, because I know that abortion is murder.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to add that even “ordinary” murder can have extenuating circumstances. It might be that in many cases there will be enough of them to avoid the actual imprisonment.