The main focus of all discussions should be "What is the unborn?" Pro-choicers often will skirt around that issue with several different reasons for abortion. They will often say: It's my choice. The birth will interfere with school or work. It's just a blob of tissue or clump of cells. The child will be disabled. The mother is a drug addict. The baby will be born in an abusive environment or in poverty. The woman was raped. The health of the mother is in danger.
The premise behind almost all reasons for abortion is that the baby is not a human or that it doesn't have the value that a born person has. There are two ways of handling most arguments. The first is the SLED test. The letters in SLED stand for Size, Level of Development, Environment, and Degree of Dependency.
Some will say that the unborn is so much smaller than a born person. You can respond by saying "Yes, that's correct, but a toddler is smaller than an adult but they are both humans with the same intrinsic value."
Many pro-choicers will say that the unborn is just not as developed as a born child. You should respond by saying that "Yes, you're right, but young girls are less developed than adult women, or toddlers are less developed than high school students but they are all human.
The argument used mainly by people in the pro-choice movement is that the unborn is in a different location so it should be able to be aborted. Do we change our value when we go from one room to another? What is the big difference between a baby born premature and placed on a mother's stomach? If that same baby was six inches away inside the mother's womb it could be killed. We are not allowed to kill that born baby so why should society be allowed to kill the unborn. The main difference is the location which should be irrelevant when discussing the value of a person.
Finally, the unborn is more dependent than a toddler, but toddlers are more dependent than adults. Some adults are dependent on medications or devices such as kidney machines or pacemakers but that doesn't lessen their value.
The next group of arguments can be responded to by using the toddler question. For instance, if someone says that it's their choice to have an abortion, you can say "Do women have a right to kill their two-year olds?" Also, "There are going to be unwanted children if we don't have abortion." A response could be that there are many children in the inner city who have miserable lives. Should we also kill them if we want to?
Another argument is to say that we have no right to tell a woman what to do with her body. There have been mothers such as Andrea Yates who used their bodies to kill their children. Do we have a right to tell them not to do that? After using this tactic many will often say that it is different because the toddlers are born and alive. Then you can revert back to the SLED test to show the value of the unborn. Remember to steer the discussion back to defining the value of the unborn. They may then say, "Well, that's just your opinion that the unborn is human. I don't think it is." Then you can say that the science of embryology states from many different sources that from the moment of conception the unborn is a living and distinct human organism.
The unborn has the three characteristics of being alive: growth, metabolizing food for energy, and reacting to stimuli. Its DNA is distinctly human and also different from its human parents. The Law of Biogenesis states that each living thing reproduces its own kind. Obviously, human parents can only produce human offspring. If someone rejects this scientific evidence they must explain two things. They must say what the unborn entity actually is, and then they must explain how two human beings can create a separate being that is not human.
There are a few more reasons that are given for abortion. The health of the mother issue often comes up especially in legislative issues. Actually, there is only one occasion when the health of the mother will be a factor as to the baby being aborted. In an ectopic pregnancy the newly conceived human implants on the wall of the fallopian tube. When it grows the tube will rupture. If we do nothing both mother and child will die. The child should be removed to save the mother. In other conditions the mother and child can be both treated as patients.
One very sensitive argument that is given is that a woman who is raped should be allowed to abort her baby. Always discuss with the person how horrible rape is and what a tragic thing it is to go through. This discussion can lead to the question of "Why should the unborn baby have to be punished for the crime of the father." Also, if you met the rapist later in court or wherever, you would not be allowed to kill him, so why should the baby be killed. In this case, as in all abortion discussions, the topic of adoption can be brought up.
Often you may only have a short time to talk to someone about the issue. A ten second pro-life view could be used. If the unborn is growing, it must be alive. If it has human parents, it must be human. And living humans like you and I are valuable.
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