Pro-life and secular: A match made in logic

By Brenda Kay Zylstra

This is the third time in as many weeks a DI columnist has opined on the divisive problem of abortion. Like the Chief and gun control, it’s an emotionally charged debate that will never die. Neither side will ever give up or accept any sort of middle ground. You probably chose your side long ago, but misinformation and misunderstanding abound, and one assertion put forth last week that I cannot allow to stand is that a pro-life viewpoint indubitably stems from religious faith.

This isn’t to ignore the fact that plenty on the pro-life side do find the foundation for that belief in the Bible. Verses like Jeremiah 1:5, which says “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart,” teach that from even before conception, each child is unique, loved, created with a purpose.

But an entirely valid argument against abortion can be made without once referring to any sort of deity. Pro-life leanings and a Christian faith do not always go hand in hand. The secular pro-life perspective is alive and well.

A short aside: The flip side is that not all Christians are pro-life. Democratic favored son Barack Obama is pro-choice to the extreme – while in the Illinois Senate he voted against the Induced Infant Liability Act, which would have made it illegal to allow babies outside the womb, who have survived late-term abortions, to die on the table.

It is simpler than you might think to be opposed to abortion without relying on belief in God. Organizations like Feminists for Life, the Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians and the Atheist and Agnostic Pro-Life League demand respect for all life outside of religious rationale. Actually, those who are pro-life weaken their argument by continually using sectarian evidence, like the existence of a soul, to back up their claims. This is unnecessary. Because the scientific community cannot come to any consensus about that definitive moment when life begins, no one can be called unreasonable for whichever view he embraces.

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From conception, an embryo has all the genetic material that person will ever have. Hazel eyes, a love of literature, a tendency to sleep too much, a knack for touch football. So much is present immediately – the promise of a future, limitless possibility. It’s not such a leap to call this potentially autonomous being a human life. If you believe this, then abortion is murder. A human life clearly trumps the discomfort or personal feelings of the mother.

Writer Mary Meehan is a veteran of the Vietnam anti-war movement. She’s neither a Christian nor a conservative, but she is against abortion. “Respect for human life demands opposition to abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia and war,” she writes, “We don’t think we have either the luxury or the right to choose some types of killing and say that they are right, while others are not. A human life is a human life; and if equality means anything, it means that society may not value some human lives over others.”

Another proponent of this view is Nat Hentoff, an American historian, novelist and columnist who has contributed to a wide variety of publications – from the Washington Times to the Village Voice – and an atheist. In his excellent essay “The Indivisible Fight for Life” Hentoff talks about supporting a “consistent ethic of life,” which advocates recognition of the value of all human life: children, adults, senior citizens – and those who are “preborn” (Hentoff’s preferred term to unborn). The preborn child is the weakest member of society, the least able to speak up for itself and the most vulnerable. Meehan writes, “The unborn child is the most helpless form of humanity, even more in need of protection than the poor tenant farmer or the mental patient.”

You don’t need a church membership to stand up for the frail. You just need a steady concern for protecting life.