In this episode of the Counsel of Trent Podcast, Trent Horn has me on to discuss a gradualist position on the moral status of the embryo/fetus in utero in contrast to Trent’s absolutist position.
abortion
An Embryo isn’t a Baby: A Response to Trent Horn
In my article “The Absolutist Prolife Position: A Critique,” I argue against the view that a human being should be granted full ontological status from the point of conception. (Conception isn’t actually a point, of course, it’s an extended process. But let’s leave that aside for this discussion.) My argument centers on two scenarios: Scenario […]
My Quick Thoughts on SCOTUS and the Overturning of Roe
The GOP scored a big victory on abortion yesterday, but at the cost of further undermining the moral authority of SCOTUS and the GOP. I’m prolife, but I’m not a fan of hypocrisy or winning by hook or by crook. Here’s a quick list of my main concerns (#5 is not about Roe per se): […]
The Absolutist Prolife Position: A Critique
The absolutist prochoice position (APC) says that elective abortion should be accessible up until birth. The absolutist prolife position (APL) says that elective abortion should be prohibited at all stages of pregnancy post-conception because the killing of the embryo/fetus at all stages constitutes the murder of a human person. Most people find themselves somewhere between […]
How Strident Pro-life Christians Harm Human Fetuses
I became an avid supporter of the pro-life movement back in the mid-1980s. At the time, I was an enthusiastic supporter of pro-life groups like Last Days Ministries. And in high school, I proudly wore an Operation Rescue t-shirt to school. Then I went on to university where I completed a BA followed by an […]
Prolife Christians Who Support Child Killing
Defending the morality of the Canaanite genocide has disastrous consequences for a consistent Christian ethic as I explain in this video. ?
Being Prolife is Not the Same Thing as Being Anti-Abortion
Babies Aren’t Tapeworms and Real Feminists Don’t Revile Fetuses
There are prochoice people who take seriously the moral weight of killing a human fetus and nonetheless side with the right of the mother to do so. And then there are prochoice people who dehumanize and objectify the human fetus, recasting him/her as a “parasite”. This is the same rhetoric used to eradicate populations in […]
Is abortion a genocide?
Dear fellow Pro-Lifers, Please do not refer to support for elective abortion as a “genocide”. The word “genocide” has a specific meaning in international law: it refers to the attempt to destroy an ethnic, religious, or cultural identity. To be sure, genocidaires may use abortion as a means to destroy an ethnic, religious and/or cultural […]
On Anti-Abortion Extremists (and other unhelpful rhetoric)
CNN just posted an article titled “Before judging ‘late-term abortion,’ understand what it means, doctors say.” I agree with the sentiment. There is way too much heat and not enough light in this complex and highly emotional debate. That said, I cannot help but reply to the comment of one of the two doctors interviewed […]
Abortion: We may never agree, but can we at least concede the other side has a point?
For decades, abortion has remained among the most volatile ethical and public policy debates in western society. This polarization is rooted in large part in the complexity of the issue itself, but it is also spurred on by uncompromising rhetoric on both sides. Thus, for example, prolifers disparage the prochoice position as “baby murder” while the prochoicers respond by invoking […]
Elective abortion as the right to kill your children
There are few political and social issues as controverted and fraught with mutual animus as the debate over abortion rights. Unfortunately, the heat is only multiplied by the common retreat to unfortunate and misleading rhetoric. Consider, for example, the practice among some prolifers of referring to abortion as a genocide. This is language that I’ve […]
The Fight over the Fetus: Abortion, Ethics, and Politics
Today Norman Geisler apparently defended his continued support for Donald Trump by claiming that Hillary Clinton is worse than Adolf Hitler. The reason? Her support for abortion. I first learned about this from Hemant Mehta’s blog and so I’m going to quote the relevant passage from his article “Christian Theologian: I Still Support Donald Trump Because […]
Fetus as Parasite? A disturbing trend in pro-choice rhetoric
Throughout history attempts to justify killing members of outgroups has been carried out by invoking labels for members of the outgroups. David Livingstone Smith chronicles this lamentable aspect of human history in his book Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2012). And so, for example, the Nazis called Jews and […]
