The secular argument for abortion is based a fundamental concept that all societies, including religious ones, have long since recognized: That a person’s rights wax and wane through out their lifetime based on their age and their mental capacity.
Abortion has been acceptable to the vast majority of people for most of history. The current polarized situation didn’t exist prior to the Christian Right’s pro life movement. They have made and framed the debate around the argument that “abortion is murder” based on their belief that an unborn child is a person from the time of conception.
So this secular defense of abortion is in reference to the “abortion is murder” argument:
That
- killing
- a person
- without just cause
is murder.
Here is a list of issues and assumptions for the pro choice argument.
- The Bible is not true. If it were true then the pro life argument would apply to everyone. But most of the people in the world believe that the Bible is not true. About 33% of the world’s population is Christian. Which means that 77% of the world isn’t Christian. And of the 33% that are Christian, many of those interpret that the Bible supports abortion. So the pro life argument is only supported by maybe 10-15% of the people in the world. And of those 10-15%, many have had abortions early in life and only changed their position later in life. Their motivations to have or support an abortion were practical while their current arguments against abortions are theoretical. Their decision was a result of their situation rather than what the bible says.
- Clearly life begins at conception. If you trace the development of a human being all the way back to the beginning, clearly conception is the beginning of life. Life begins at conception but isn’t complete for a period of time. But an unstated assumption of the Christian Right’s pro life argument is that a soul is implanted at this time. And it is the presence of this soul that makes human life complete from the time of conception.
- A fetus is human. A fetus is an unborn and developing human being. When a fetus rises to the level of being a person depends on how you define person hood. A few dozen cells doesn’t qualify as a person, but a viable unborn child does.
- The cut off for abortions is usually viability. While human life begins at conception – it isn’t complete until the fetus / unborn child is viable. Until this point it’s not a complete human being. It’s a partial, developing human being. It’s not a person, it’s a partial, developing, potential person. Therefore the fetus’s rights are partial and subordinate to the rights and interest of it’s mature mother.
- Child birth is risky and costly. Even with today’s modern medicine child birth carries a risk. And child birth is expensive, with or without insurance. And child birth damages a woman’s body. Raising a child is a lifetime responsibility. Many fathers fail to support their children and the burden ultimately falls on the mother.
- The decision to have an abortion can be traumatizing. And this trauma is often times cited by the pro life movement as a reason to not have an abortion. But this trauma is often times caused, then amplified by the Christian right for just this reason. So it’s a circular argument. Child birth can be equally or even more traumatizing than having an abortion. But this is rarely cited as a reason to not have a child.
- Most abortions are elective. An estimated 80% of abortions are elective. Only a small percentage are necessary for the life or health of the mother. The decision to have an abortion is based on the balance of rights between a mature mother and her incomplete unborn child, and the cost/benefit to the mother.
- Word choice, unborn child. The pro choice argument makes a distinction between the different stages of development for the unborn child. The pro life argument doesn’t. So the pro life movement can and does use this lack of distinction to mis represent the pro choice position. For example, by saying they want to kill all unborn children, not just the pre viable fetus.
The argument for abortion is based a fundamental concept that all societies, including religious ones, have long since recognized: That a person’s rights wax and wane through out their lifetime. Typically based on their age and their mental capacity.
A pre viable unborn child isn’t yet a person. Even after birth many of it’s rights are minimal and subordinate to the mother for years to come.
Societies have long since decided that the right to terminate the pregnancy / kill the unborn child is at the discretion of the mother, for a period of time. That time frame time varies with the society and the point in history. Some societies have made that time as when the child takes it’s first breath. Earlier societies placed that time at a few years after birth, depending on the circumstances. Killing a child after birth is known as infanticide. It was popular in the past but unacceptable now. In modern societies the cut off time is settling to be at viability.
The secular argument for abortion is that, even though life begins at conception, life isn’t complete until a fetus is viable. Therefore killing a pre viable fetus isn’t murder because it isn’t a complete person. And abortion / killing the fetus is justifiable because the pre viable fetus’s right to life is subordinate to the mother’s will.
Unlike the Christian Right’s pro life argument that can point to the Bible to justify it’s position (which is based upon the assumption of a soul), the secular argument for abortion is based on history and the collective judgment of societies. And since the Bible isn’t true, then the secular argument is the only valid one.
Links
Justifying Homicide: The Future Battleground in the Abortion Debate
So what if abortion ends life?
So What if Abortion Ends a Life? Rare Candor from the Culture of Death