Pro-Life?

Posted on June 28, 2002 in Abortion Social Justice

In our world where we expect everything to be as simple as the light switch that turns the ceiling lamp on and off, we have a tendency to not look very deep at the phrases we use. In her Nonsexist Word Finder (now out of print), Rosalie Maggio wrote for her definition of the term “pro-life”:

…the term describes those who oppose abortion; pro-life stances range from those who oppose abortion for any reason whatsoever (and who also oppose birth control) to those who favor birth control and accept abortion as a possibility in a few narrowly delimited circumstances. You may want to be sure which type of pro-life group you are referring to. In addition, some pro-lifers are one issue people (abortion only) while others define “pro-life” by a wide spectrum of issues (death penalty, poverty and justice, nuclear arms race, etc.). Both men and women are involved in the pro-life movement.

In defining myself in this continuum, I find that I resemble the pro-lifer with the broader self definition more than I do the more limited “we’re only concerned about abortion” approach to the morality. I’ve noted on channels that in many ways, some people who support abortion strike me as more pro-life — if one tots up all the issues that count — than the people who scream the longest and the loudest, usually. My personal concern with Roe vs. Wade is that it extended the time when an abortion on demand might be performed beyond what I think is reasonable. Despite what the right says, pregnancy and the near certainty of viable human life begins not at conception, but at implantation, an event that takes place three months after sperm and ova make their rendeavous. It is about this time that the nervous tissue begins to function and that, the presence of a prototype mind, is what I call the point at which human life begins. For these reasons, I support the use of the morning after pill: most fertilized ova are flushed out of the system anyways. And I prefer that we do not allow women to let the question of whether or not to abort until the point of viability. I feel strongly, unlike some of my liberal friends (who still have much that is good about them) that abortion after implantation should only be reserved for genuine medical emergencies, when the life of the mother is endangered by continuing the pregnancy and maybe in the rare case of rape while imprisoned.