Trent Horn - 20 Answers- Abortion (20 Answers Series from Catholic Answers)

20 Answers

Abortion

Trent Horn

20 Answers Abortion

Trent Horn

2014 Catholic Answers

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Table of Contents

Introduction

In 2012 the Gallup polling service released a study indicating that for the first time a majority of Americans identified themselves as being pro-life.This should have been a cause for celebration among pro-life advocates, but 2012 also revealed that America is not ready to outlaw abortion. Not only did America re-elect a president who was firmly committed to keeping abortion legal, but ballot initiatives that could have severely restricted or outlawed abortion at the state level also failed to pass. In fact, since 1973 no state has ever successfully voted to outlaw a majority of abortions that occur.

What explains the actions of people who say they are pro-life but refuse to take steps to make abortion illegal? One explanation is that the term pro-life refers to those who merely dislike abortion but do not think it is a serious moral wrong. In fact, one study found that 35 percent of self-described pro-lifers did not want Roe v. Wade (the Supreme Court Case that keeps abortion legal) overturned.These people may not choose abortion for themselves, but they do not want to make abortion illegal in general.

While pro-life advocates have done an excellent job of showing that the unborn are alive and human (such as through new ultrasound technology), the opposition has retreated behind new arguments that must be answered. Some of these pro-lifers who support legal abortion say that they cant impose their morality on anyone else. They may think that other issuessuch as ending sex trafficking or povertyare more important than abortion. Or they may think that even if the unborn are human beings, a woman has a right not to let her child use her body without her consent.

Pro-life advocates must refocus their efforts to communicate an attractive and powerful defense of unborn children. Along with answering these new arguments for legal abortion, pro-life advocates can be successful by simply communicating simple statements of fact. For example, a 2013 NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll found that while 70 percent of Americans did not want Roe v. Wade overturned, 41 percent in the same poll said they did not know enough about Roe v. Wade to say if they disapproved of it.For these people, the idea of anything being overturned was enough to draw their opposition.

The goal of this booklet is to show that the questions presented by critics of the pro-life position can be answered in a gracious way with scientific facts and sound, logical reasoning. Those people who believe in human equality, the dignity of the human person, and the duty to care for the least among us should seriously consider accepting the pro-life position and stand up for the right to life of unborn children.

1. What is abortion?

Defining abortion can be difficult, because both sides of the issue tend to use language that favors their opinion of the procedure. For example, people who believe abortion should be legal (who call themselves pro-choice) often define abortion as the termination of a pregnancy or the emptying of the contents of the uterus. In contrast, people who believe abortion should be illegal (who call themselves pro-life) often define abortion as the killing of a baby or the killing of an unborn human being.

So is abortion a morally innocuous emptying of the uterus, or is it child-killing? If pro-choice people are right and an abortion is harmless surgery, then restrictions on abortion would hurt women and make them second-class citizens. If pro-life people are right and abortion kills a valuable human being, then keeping abortion legal would be the continuation of a tremendous evil that has taken tens of millions of innocent lives. So which side is right, and how should we respond?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary , abortion is the expulsion or removal from the womb of a developing embryo or fetus in the period before it is capable of independent survival. This distinguishes abortion from childbirth, when an unborn child is removed from the womb when he can survive and there is no intention of killing him.

Abortions are either spontaneous (usually referred to as miscarriages ) or intentional (called induced abortions ). The majority of induced abortions are elective, meaning they are done for social and non-health-related reasons. The most common reasons women give for having an abortion are: Having a baby would dramatically change my life (74 percent), I cant afford a baby right now (73 percent), and I dont want to be a single mother or am having relationship problems (48 percent).

About 90 percent of the 1.06 million abortions performed in the United States each year occur in the first trimester of pregnancy. During this stage of pregnancy the abortion provider administers medication that causes something similar to a miscarriage, or he uses a tube connected to a vacuum to suck out the unborn human being from the uterus. If the latter procedure is used, the abortion provider will usually collect the childs body parts in a jar and examine them to make sure none were left inside the mother.

In the later stages of pregnancy, when the unborn human is too big to fit through the vacuum tube, the abortion provider uses a procedure called dilation and evacuation (or D&E). This brutal procedure is described in the Supreme Court case Gonzales v. Carhart (2007):

The doctor, often guided by ultrasound, inserts grasping forceps through the womans cervix and into the uterus to grab the fetus. The doctor grips a fetal part with the forceps and pulls it back through the cervix and vagina, continuing to pull even after meeting resistance from the cervix. The friction causes the fetus to tear apart. For example, a leg might be ripped off the fetus as it is pulled through the cervix and out of the woman. The process of evacuating the fetus piece by piece continues until it has been completely removed.

Another reason abortion is such an emotional issue is that millions of women are post-abortive. It is estimated that one in every three women by age 45 will have had at least one abortion.The grisly reality of abortion can cause these women and their partners to have deep feelings of regret and guilt. When talking about the reality of abortion, it is important not to lose sight of these men and women and to let them know that they can find healing and hope. In his encyclical The Gospel of Life , Pope John Paul II wrote in a special message to post-abortive women:

The Church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decision, and she does not doubt that in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision.... The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and his peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. To the same Father and his mercy you can with sure hope entrust your child.

2. What is the legal status of abortion in the United States?

Throughout U.S. history abortion was illegal except in rare cases when the womans life was in danger or if the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. That changed when Norma McCorvey, under the pseudonym Jane Roe, sued the state of Texas for her alleged right to have an abortion. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court handed down its Roe v. Wade decision, ruling 7 to 2 in favor of Roe.

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