Is the Pro-Life Cause Winning?

This week’s TIME magazine cover story announces that, forty years after Roe, the pro-life side is winning the abortion debate. I say, “Not so fast.”

 

On the one hand, yes, as the article points out, there have been some real gains in protections for the unborn in some important arenas. And public polling data does demonstrate, rather consistently, that younger people are more willing to identify themselves as being “pro-life” than are their mothers’ generation. This is due partly to sonogram and other technologies that make it harder and harder to maintain that the “fetus” is a clump of impersonal tissue. Whenever evangelical Christians see polls like this, we tend to see some triumphalist rhetoric about how “we’re winning.”

I think it’s more complicated than that.

Yes, it’s a win just that the concept of “pro-life” is still alive. The abortion rights movement probably assumed that forty years after the Supreme Court legalized abortion that the issue would be as settled as school integration or women’s suffrage. It’s still a controversy, and the pro-life side hasn’t been sidelined by history.

And it’s true that there have been some gains in the numbers of doctors who, for conscience reasons, are unwilling to go along with the lie that abortion is “health-care.”   Continue at Russel D. Moore

Is Gun Control a Pro-Life Issue?

As the nation grieves over the shocking and senseless murder in Aurora, Colorado, the conversation turns to how to prevent such violence in the future. Some wonder what role violent media play in motivating twisted killers. Others suggest that stricter gun control is a key step in curtailing such havoc. Some of these are suggesting that gun control is not only the only sensible measure but the only thing consistent with a pro-life ethic.

In this morning’s Washington Post, David Gibson of the Religion News Service examines the charges by some religious leaders, most specifically a Jesuit priest in America magazine, that it is hypocritical to call oneself “pro-life” and yet not support extensive gun control measures. He asked me what I thought. Is gun violence a pro-life issue?

Gun violence is clearly a pro-life to the extent that murder is evil and a violation of the dignity of the person and the right to life. That said, usually what people mean by including gun violence as a pro-life issue is not about gun violence, directly, but about gun control measures.  Continue at Russell D. Moore

Why Americans Are Becoming More Pro-Life

Ashley McGuire explains at the Washington Post’s “On Faith” site why Americans are becoming more pro-life. After noting that Gallup is now recording the lowest level of self-described pro-choicers in its history of tracking the abortion issue, she writes:  

Many past civil rights movements in this country, such as the move to end slavery or the fight for women’s suffrage, were deeply rooted in religious conviction. Such is the case with the pro-life movement. But with each of these movements there was a tipping point where Americans saw that one need not be a devoutly religious person to recognize the social justice issue at stake and to get behind the cause. This is happening with abortion in America.  Continue at Denny Burk

Yes, How Dare You Compare Abortion to Slavery?!

I love the way the internet helps you get around the world in minutes.  For example, my man Zach links to a news and views round-up by Trevin Wax which links to an opinion piece by Bryan Kemper over at LifeNews.com called “Responding to: How Dare You Compare Abortion to the Holocaust or Slavery.”  That’s around the world in about 8 seconds!  Or at least around the evangelical blogger world in 8 seconds.
Information and opinions travel quickly on the internet.  And that means we’re prone to gathering and absorbing views and opinions with far too much speed to carefully consider alternatives.  I’d like to offer one to Mr. Kemper’s piece.
You see, I’m firmly pro-life and anti-abortion.  And I’m also one of those persons who responds, “How dare you compare abortion to slavery?!”  You can read an earlier post on this issue here.  But here’s what I’d like to add as friendly fire to a soldier in a war I care about, who does not appear to understand how his rhetorical gunfire affects the one in the trench next to him.  In other words, this is why I’d say “how dare you…” to my ally Mr. Kemper. Continue Reading>>>