If you’ve paid any attention to the debate over abortion, you have no doubt heard a lot of catch phrases bantered about by both sides as if they are in a bumper-sticker Battle Royale. Unfortunately these marketing slap fights do little to change people’s minds, and I think this is because they do little to clarify either position to the other side. Thus, in order to serve the greater good, I am going to help translate the pro-choice bumper stickers for my pro-life readers, which will (hopefully) in turn clarify the pro-life position to my pro-choice readers.

Please fasten your seat-belts and mind diapers, and please do your best to follow the argument as it progresses and not start cursing me out because you think you know where I might be going with this. No flash photography, and please hold all of your questions until the end.

The camp who wishes Abortion to be legal and available to women call themselves Pro-Choice.

Let’s begin by examining the term “Pro-Choice.”

Pro– means simply, in favor of, in defense of, or in support of.

Thus, this camp is in favor of, or stand in defense or support of “choice.” But what choice? 

Choice is often replaced in the bumper-stickers with the phrase “reproductive rights.”

Now what does THAT mean? Is it the choice this camp is “pro” and the other side is against?

Rights– while often left undefined and hazy in most discussions, this term often- and I believe in this debate specifically- refers to government creating laws to protect the citizens’ freedom to do something. Thus, if I have the right to mow my lawn, the government will have laws which keep me from being fined or jailed for mowing my lawn. Alternately, it can mean the government refuses to make laws which hinder me from doing something. If the government has no laws against me growing bananas on my head, then I have the right to grow bananas on my head.  

Thus, Reproductive Rights would be the legally protected freedom to reproduce.

Reproduce– to produce a member of one’s own kind (i.e. a baby human).

But now we must ask, is being PRO-CHOICE the same as wanting the legal right to reproduce? Obviously the answer is NO.
Abortion has nothing to do with choosing to reproduce. In fact, abortion is a choice which ONLY exists for the woman who already HAS reproduced. 

Imagine two women walk into Planned Parenthood.

One is pregnant and the other is not. Which woman can be offered an Abortion? Obviously the pregnant woman and ONLY her. This tells us two things-

1. Abortion is NOT a form of contraception, as it cannot be used to PREVENT a pregnancy from occurring. It can only be offered to a women who is ALREADY pregnant. Thus, in this sense, it does not offer either woman the choice to reproduce or not to reproduce, and thus is not about the CHOICE to Reproduce.

2. It does not offer the pregnant woman the choice to reproduce, as she has already reproduced- that is, produced a member of her own kind (i.e. a baby human) as is obvious from the very definition of “pregnant.”

But let’s examine the legal right to reproduce- or, as some call it, “Reproductive Rights.”

There are two ways in which a woman can reproduce- naturally (Sexually) or artificially (such as in vitro fertilization.) Both of these are legal, and there is no voice in the Pro-Life movement which is trying to make either of these illegal. So the fight is not here. If she chooses to engage in sex or chooses to get medical help in getting pregnant- in both cases she has chosen to reproduce and the law does not hinder or punish her at all, and no one on the Pro-Life side is trying to change that.

There are two ways in which a reproduction can occur- with the woman’s consent or without it. If it is against her consent, it is called rape and is already illegal. Once again, there is no voice on the Pro-Life side arguing that rape ought to be legal, and thus once again the fight is not here. Women have the right to reproduce if they desire, and the law is designed to protect her from being forced to reproduce against her will.

In short, there is no debate over reproductive rights.

Being Pro-Choice is NOT equivalent to wanting reproductive rights, because 1. those rights already exist across the western world, and 2. no one on the pro-Life side is trying to take those rights away. More importantly, as we have already seen, 3. Abortion is not about the right to reproduce but can only be offered to a woman who has ALREADY reproduced. An abortion can ONLY be offered to a woman who is already pregnant.

Since Pro-Choice is the Pro-Abortion position, it helps to understand what abortion is.

To Abort is to bring to a premature end.

Abortion is bringing a pregnancy to a premature end, as opposed to allowing the 9 months of gestation to conclude with a normal birth.

There are only so many options when it comes to terminating a pregnancy:

1. Normal birth– pregnancy concludes naturally with the birth of a live baby (already legal and not disputed)

2. Medically assisted birth– “C-Section”- concludes with a live baby brought out of the mother via surgery (already legal and not disputed)

3. Miscarriage– pregnancy concludes with the death of the baby, the death being of natural or accidental causes (no legal issues or dispute except where in the law is intended to protect the unborn child from accident deaths, whether due to dangerous chemicals or physical violence against the mother- for example, if a pregnant woman is killed, the law considers this act a double homicide since the unborn child also dies)

4. Abortion– the intentional killing of a live baby so that a dead baby is removed from the mother through some surgical means.

By definition, an abortion is intended to cause the death of the unborn baby. It is not inducing labor ahead of the due date, and it is not a C-section intended to bring a live baby into the world.

By definition, if the baby lives, the Abortion has failed.

Let’s return to our earlier question- WHAT is being CHOSEN? As Pro-Choice is Pro-Abortion, then Pro-Choice is to be in support of the legally protected right to murder a baby before it can be born.

Abortion is literally infanticide. It is the intentional killing of a living human baby.

This is why the anti-Abortion movement calls itself Pro-Life. It is opposing legally protected murder.

Here’s the summary flowchart:

Pro-Choice: in support of the legally protected right to choose

to choose WHAT?

Reproductive Rights: The right to reproduce

Does Pro-Choice=being in support of the legally protected right to reproduce?

NO.

Rape is illegal, and all forms of consensual conception are legal. The debate is NOT over the right to reproduce, but the choices of the woman who is already pregnant/has already reproduced.

Pro-Choice is being in favor of the right to choose whether or not to give birth.

There are only a few methods of terminating a pregnancy, and Abortion is unique to the others because it intentionally causes the baby to die before it leaves the mothers body.

In other words, Pro-Choice is being in favor of the legally protected right to terminate a pregnancy by having the living baby intentionally killed.

Intentionally killing a human who has not committed a crime worthy of capital punishment is called Murder.

Thus, Pro-Choice is Pro-Baby Murder, and pro-Life is Anti-baby Murder.

You are now free to move about the cabin.