Non-religious reasons to be pro-life

[Somel]

Perhaps I am one of very few, but I am Pro-life for completely non-religious reasons. It strikes me that most mothers who choose to end the lives of their babies are either not religious--atheist, agnostic--or Christmas and Easter religious, both of which are perfectly respectable ways to base your life (I personally claim agnosticism myself). Because of this thought, I have always envisioned a non-religious movement supporting the lives or potential lives that are being wasted because of reproductive irresponsibility and the lack of available options and support for surprised, under-prepared mothers.
While prayer-vigils and tracts outlining the reasons why the Bible says abortion kills an unborn child or why virginity should be glorified or other topics...are perfectly respectable and a beautiful way to worship your god....Could there not be a more far reaching movement? Is there not a better way to effect change?

What are everyone's thoughts on this idea?

[Teresa Pitts]

FACTUAL REASONS to be Pro-life (from a seven minute speech):

Answering when an individual’s human life begins -- that’s easy!

A person’s life begins the moment you begin growing in your mother’s womb – at the moment of conception. When those two half cells come together, you have humanity and you have life.

YOU HAVE HUMAN LIFE.

ALL OF US WERE ONCE THAT CELL, MADE FROM TWO HALF CELLS.

Now, please turn and look at your neighbor. Notice his or her eye color, hair color, the shape of his or her nose, ears, and eyes, how tall he or she is, the shape of his or her hands and feet. All of those features were part of him or her from that very moment of conception.

CONCEPTION IS WHEN THAT PERSON’S HUMAN LIFE BEGAN.

Even some personality traits, and predisposition to diseases, were there at the moment of conception.

Many persons in Western countries like to think that human life begins ONLY when the mother chooses. They favor and actually promote abortion. Some go so far to say that the ending of a human life, illegal by private citizens in every other instance, is a “human right” of the mother. The heart of this argument is slavery – the ownership of one person by another, the determination of the life or death of one person by another. It’s like arguing for some persons to have rights over other persons. To paraphrase George Orwell from his book Animal Farm, they would have you believe that “all are equal, but some are more equal than others”.

This group will also argue that women can never be equal in status to men unless they can “walk away” from a pregnancy the way a man can walk away from pregnancy. Abortion is the answer to women’s equality, they say. Here they take an unsavory behavior of some men – men who refuse to take responsibility for their children – and say that women need to be able to behave in the same unsavory way in order to be equal? That’s like saying I should be able to steal from anyone wealthier than myself in order to “equalize” my financial standing with him or her.

Another popular argument from this group is that it’s “her body, her choice” – except her actions only tangentially affect her body but destroy a developing person. These so-called “progressive” thinkers reduce the miraculous to a basic selfishness instead of honoring and ennobling the true beauty of being female, of being able to conceive and nurture human life. Their arguments consistently sidestep the FACT that a small human person is in that womb with hair color, eye color, height, -- all of those features --already determined. They are trying to justify killing a human being.

This group will also argue that “quality of life” is more important that life itself. Not surprisingly, they appoint themselves judges of this quality standard. The standard usually takes a utilitarian approach – the judged usefulness of a person to society, meaning their small group in power.

These same ones never use the term “person” or “baby”, but rather “product of conception” “non-viable tissue mass” or “it’s just a bunch of cells”.

BUT NO MATTER HOW YOU SLICE IT, OR TURN THE WORDS, AT THE MOMENT OF CONCEPTION YOU HAVE HUMAN LIFE.

Again, please turn and look at the “bunch of cells” sitting next to you. And I’ll remind you, as products of conception are listening to a former non-viable tissue mass speak.

In our country’s own Declaration of Independence it states “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”

The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3, states: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”.

Who is this group who considers themselves more enlightened that the Founding Fathers of the U.S. and the intellects who hammer out U.N. declarations? Why can they not see the beauty of a human person conceived? That I cannot answer: I can only speculate on the dearth of affection in their lives that would lead them to denying any life to others.

[Kelsey Hazzard]

http://www.fundable.com/groupactions/groupaction.2009-09-21.9482711992
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