The feminist philosopher Naomi Wolf once noted “With the pro-choice rhetoric we now use, we incur three destructive consequences: -two ethical, one strategic: hardness of heart, lying, and political failure” (Naomi Wolf “Our Bodies, Our Souls” in Beckwith, Pojman eds. The Abortion Controversy: 25 Years after Roe V. Wade, a Reader. Second Edition).
How has pro-choice rhetoric been “hardhearted”? Slogans such as “shout your abortion” and “God Bless Abortion” are examples of this. Examples of “lying” include Planned Parenthood being forced to admit in the early 1990s that the organization greatly exaggerated the “back-alley abortion” claims. Finally, in terms of “political failure”, we see that there has been no end to the back-and-forth struggle between both sides on the abortion issue.
Regardless of your view on the issue, there can be no deceptiveness from either side. Back-alley abortions were rare before Roe v. Wade (Source: Planned Parenthood’s false stat: ‘Thousands’ of women died every year before Roe – The Washington Post) and so it is blatantly ignorant and deceptive for pro-choice organizations to continue making this claim.
There can be no vulgar or violent outburst such as the slogans mentioned above. Third, both parties must concede a little ground in order for any progress to be made. The Catholic Church has virtually made the fetus into a veritable idol by claiming that a mother should be willing to die in childbirth rather than have an abortion, even though two lives would be lost instead of one. Such a worldview contradicts common sense morality and, ironically, scripture’s injunction to preserve life (Psalm 86:2).
What is often overlooked is the effects that abortion has had on sex trafficking. Due to the limited number of available brides in China, sex traffickers have kidnapped and enslaved girls and women from other countries (source: AP Exclusive: 629 Pakistani girls sold as brides to China | AP News). Such are the consequences of the moral void left in a society that had mandated (and not merely allowed) abortion.
Both pro-choice and pro-life advocates should be addressing issues such as that rather than engaging in moral grandstanding. In the old days, one had to have the necessary training to be an “expert” on something. Nowadays, activists on both sides watch a few Tik Tok videos and declare themselves intellectually superior to their predecessors.
Another thing to mention is the hypocrisy of many of the most ardent “respect life” ministers who refuse to adopt existing children, thereby making themselves appear shallow to their pro-choice opponents. While there is nothing wrong with making new children in and of itself, those who demand an immediate end to abortion and who simultaneously refuse to take in existing children from impoverished communities display the degradation of the ministerial profession. Things have to change.
“They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:3)
“For death has come up into our windows; it has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets…” (Jeremiah 9:21).
Bill Kennedy IV, M.T.S
Bowling Green
