10 Reasons Not to Have an Abortion

As I mentioned in my last article, I would compile a list of reasons not to have an abortion. This is to counter Mommyish's article 10 Reasons to Have an Abortion (even though she only came up with nine). So without further ado, here are ten reasons not to have an abortion, in no particular order and without images to distract from the arguments.

01. It is wrong to kill innocent human beings, especially for no other reason than to make life easier for someone.

Most abortions are done out of convenience. For example, a woman doesn't feel ready to be a mother, she finds herself without much money, etc. But it is never permissible to kill someone to make life easier for ourselves or for anyone else. In fact, if your argument is an argument from convenience, just ask yourself if we should allow a parent to kill their two-year-old child for this reason. If the answer is no, then you can't justify killing an unborn human being because of it, either.

In fact, one way in which pro-choice people corrupt the abortion debate is they talk about how they can do anything with the child, but don't have to bear any responsibility for having sex. The responsible thing to do is if a woman doesn't want to be a mother, doesn't think she can afford it, etc., then she shouldn't be having sex since the sex act is intrinsically linked to procreation.

02. All human beings are equally valuable.

My friend, Josh Brahm, wrote a great article called The Most Undervalued Argument in the Pro-Life Movement, which I linked to earlier in the week. All human beings are intrinsically valuable from the moment they come into existence at fertilization. The reason that racism and sexism are wrong is because they both focus on a surface difference while ignoring the thing we all have in common that accounts for our value, our common humanity. I have no more right to harm a black person than I do a white person, or a woman than I do a man. The unborn are human beings, too, and deserve protection. No one has a right to take their life.

03. You are robbing them of their future.

Don Marquis wrote an excellent essay titled Why Abortion is Immoral. I have written about it before. In his article, he shows that what makes killing someone wrong is that you are robbing them of their future of valuable experiences. In fact, one reason why people consider it more of a tragedy when a young person dies than when an older person dies is not because there is a difference in value, but because the young person had their whole life ahead of them, whereas an elderly person was nearing the end of their life. In the case of abortion, you are essentially robbing them of their entire future. If it is a tragedy when a ten year old child dies, it is much more of a tragedy when an unborn human being is killed when they are just beginning their life.

04. Women often feel like they don't have a choice.

This is something that happens all too often. Legalized abortion has not liberated women; in fact, it allows men to control women. They can treat them as sex objects, then just take them in for an abortion. Or statutory rapists can rape a young girl, then take her in for an abortion to hide the evidence, and Planned Parenthood has been shown to hide statutory rape, child sex trafficking, and other horrendous crimes rather than turning the perpetrators in to the authorities.

Aristotle wrote that a choice made in ignorance is not a free choice. Pro-choice people constantly say that women should have a choice, yet also consistently fight to hide information about fetal development, fight against legislation that requires an abortion-minded woman to see her ultrasound (which has caused women to change their mind about abortions, and has caused doctors, nurses, and counselors to come out of the pro-choice movement, after seeing the reality of what abortion does to an unborn child), and to fight against other common sense legislation. A movement that fights so hard to keep information secret can't have anyone's best interests at heart.

05. Killing someone is rarely, if ever, in their own best interests.

This argument seems powerful on its face, but doesn't hold up to scrutiny. I think it's more likely that the person making this argument isn't concerned about the hardship of the child, but rather is more concerned about the hardship of raising a special needs child. Even with children who have severe defects and won't live long after birth, we are not justified in ending their lives prematurely. This is another case of circumstances. I don't think anyone who advocates abortions for severe birth defects would advocate killing someone after birth because they have this defect. So if we can't justify killing a born child because of a disability or defect, then we can't justify killing an unborn child for this reason.

Especially if your reason is only because you don't want a child to grow up impoverished or abused. No one would advocate killing children in poverty or in abusive situations (after all, killing someone is the ultimate form of abuse). The right answer is to change the situation, or advance medical technology to cure the disability or defect, not to kill anyone who finds themselves in that situation.

06. No matter the situation, there's always a way out that doesn't involve taking innocent life.

There are actually more pregnancy care centers in the United States than there are abortion clinics. These care centers are designed to help women in need, such as giving them counseling, free diapers and car seats, and most of all (and which the abortion clinic won't do), they build relationships with these women. Aside from pregnancy care centers, there are churches that give families in need free food and other care services. There are government programs to help (and I do believe that we need better government programs, and a society that cares more for single mothers and pregnant women). The bottom line is there is always a way out that doesn't necessitate the taking of innocent life. Plus, while adoption is a difficult decision and a heroic one, it does offer a way out that preserves innocent life. There are currently more couples wanting to adopt than there are children to adopt because we are aborting most of the ones who would go up for adoption (or who would otherwise be kept).

07. Parents have a special obligation to their offspring.

Once a man and woman conceive, they have created a child. Parents have special, basic obligations to their children like the obligation not to kill and to provide the basic necessities of life, like food, shelter, and clothes.

08. Doctors have an obligation to preserve life, and must not take it.

As people who are specially trained and educated in how the human body works, they are also in a special position to misuse their abilities terribly. Dating at least as far back as Hippocrates, a doctor was seen as a preserver of life, not a taker of life, and was seen as having an obligation not to even give a woman an abortion or to employ euthanasia.

09. It treats human life as a means to an end.

Humans are intrinsically valuable, meaning that they are valuable in and of themselves. So using them as a means to an end (e.g. as a means to sexual gratification via pornography) is immoral. The vast majority of abortions are done for convenience or to make the parents' life easier in some way, which is not only wrong because it takes an innocent life but because it also treats human life as a means to an end.

10. We are all made in God's image.

Granted, this argument won't be convincing to a non-religious person, but that doesn't make it untrue. All human beings are made in God's image, right from the start. This is because "God's image" is not a physical image, since the Scriptures tell us that God is spirit. Rather, we are made in God's image because we have an inherent nature as rational, moral agents, an inherent nature that the unborn share (they are just too immature to presently exercise those capacities). We are made in God's image because God made us. We have no right to mistreat anyone else, especially to kill them, because you are mistreating/killing someone who has been made in the image of God.

I think these ten reasons for not having an abortion are much more compelling than Ms. Vawter's ten reasons to have an abortion. Life is the most precious thing we have, and to extinguish it in an innocent person is very wrong, indeed.