Pro-Choice?
For starters, why does the phrase pro-choice immediately call to mind the
issue of abortion? Almost every time we read an article or hear a report
about an abortion related issue we hear the phrase pro-choice. Is there any
inherent and exclusive connection between the terms choice and abortion? We
have been conditioned to think and to speak in this manner. The truth is
that "choice" equally applies to all issues. The question about being for or
against choice can be applied to various issues. For instance, is it morally
permissible to be pro-choice on slavery? What about segregation? Can I be
pro-choice on wife-beating, or rape?
If being pro-choice is good enough for abortion, why not for these and other
controversial issues? Is abortion-the destruction of a pre-natal human
life-less significant, less serious, less offensive than these other issues
which presuppose a living person and a violation of that person's dignity?
What about the choice itself? What is being chosen? In the other areas
mentioned above simply being pro-choice is not good enough. One must take a
stance. There is something wrong with being pro-slavery. There is something
wrong with being pro-segregation, pro-wife-beating, and pro-rape. Isn't
there something wrong with being pro-abortion?
There, I said it, pro-abortion! Do you notice that we don't hear that phrase
too often, although we get its contrary-"anti-abortion foe"-all the time?
But that is exactly what the "pro-choice" crowd is for. Even those who are
"personally opposed" to it! Recall all those people in the years leading up
to the Civil War who were personally opposed to slavery-didn't even own
any-but unwilling to impose their moral and religious convictions on those
in states where slavery was legal. They were pro-choice on slavery, invoking
"states' rights" to justify their non-participation in the struggle to
abolish slavery as the slave states invoked the same to justify their
commitment to the institution of slavery.
So we need to know what the choice is about if we are going to be honest
about determining the moral quality of the choice. Usually that information
is withheld from the public and especially from the mother who is
contemplating an abortion. It is typically withheld from her parents,
boyfriend, and friends who are encouraging, if not coercing her to "get rid
of" her baby. Here are a few descriptions of procedures used corresponding
to the three trimesters during which an abortion is legal. Yes, in the
United States a baby can be aborted up to the moment of birth!
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