{"id":23977,"date":"2015-01-22T07:00:32","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=23977"},"modified":"2015-01-23T09:44:33","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T16:44:33","slug":"safe-and-legal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2015\/01\/22\/safe-and-legal\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Apology: “Better than back-alley abortions”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I would like to continue this pro-life blog series<\/a>\u00a0by briefly responding to something which is regularly\u00a0brought up during discussions on abortion.<\/p>\n

Objection<\/h2>\n

I have often heard it said, even by people who think that abortion is terrible and wrong, that they would prefer to see abortion remain legal for fear that, if it were made illegal, it would just drive the abortion industry underground:<\/p>\n

“I think abortion is wrong, but I think it’s much better to keep it legal so that we can make it as safe as possible”<\/em><\/p>\n

On the\u00a0Internet, this is often expressed in images such as this:<\/p>\n

\"Never-Going-Back\"<\/p>\n

Of course, whenever a\u00a0person says he\u00a0doesn’t like abortion but still wants to keep it legal<\/strong>, a really good starting place to begin the discussion is to ask him first\u00a0why\u00a0<\/strong>he don’t like abortion…\u00a0But does the\u00a0logic presented here stand up to scrutiny? Is it better for abortion to be legal and regulated?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Response<\/h2>\n

Avoiding laws that people will break<\/h3>\n

In putting forward such an argument, the pro-choice advocate is basically saying that we can’t make intrinsic evils illegal because it’ll just drive them underground<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The problem with this logic is that, if we were consistent on this point, we would have no laws<\/strong>! After all, won’t making anything<\/strong>\u00a0illegal drive it underground? If we followed this policy, the only laws we’d ever make\u00a0would be those which nobody would ever break…and, if nobody would ever break those laws, what would be the point in making those laws in the first place?<\/p>\n

Problematic Example #1: Toddlers too?<\/h4>\n

In responding to this objection, we could also\u00a0use the strategy outlined in an earlier post<\/a>, presenting once more\u00a0the logic of the argument, but this time replacing the unborn child with a toddler.<\/p>\n

\"Toddlers\"<\/p>\n

How would you react to the assertion that killing toddlers shouldn’t be illegal, because otherwise it would just drive all the toddler killing underground?<\/p>\n

Problematic Example #2: Regulated\u00a0Slavery?<\/h4>\n

The essential logic presented in this objection is that making something illegal drives it underground. If we want to embrace this idea, what other evils should we regulate instead of outlaw? How\u00a0about slavery?<\/p>\n

\"traff2\"<\/p>\n

Would it be a good idea\u00a0to make\u00a0slavery legal and regulated<\/strong>, rather than battling illegal human trafficking<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

Problematic Example #3:\u00a0Dogs and babies?<\/h4>\n

Both England and America are nations of animal lovers and I wonder how the RSPA and the ASPCA would react if we applied the similar logic to the treatment of animals…<\/p>\n

\"DogFighting\"<\/p>\n

How would the animal rights organizations\u00a0respond to the assertion that dog fights should be made legal because otherwise they would just be driven underground? There would be many advantages to this. For example, if they were legal, we could make sure no owners got accidentally hurt in the fights. You could also have a vet on standby to put down any losing animals.\u00a0Obviously, the animal rights organizations\u00a0would reject this logic.<\/p>\n

Of course, this\u00a0comparison in this example is woefully inadequate. We’re not talking about the death of canines<\/strong>\u00a0here, but the death of human beings<\/strong> and I think that\u00a0most<\/a>\u00a0people, theist or atheist, would ascribe to human beings intrinsic worth far above that of animals.<\/p>\n

Safe for whom?<\/h3>\n

So, returning to the argument, the position being articulated by the pro-choice advocate is as follows:<\/p>\n

1. Make abortion illegal<\/strong> and women die<\/strong> from back-street abortions<\/p>\n

2. Make abortion legal<\/strong> and we increase the chance of women\u00a0surviving<\/strong> the operation<\/p>\n

When a pro-lifer hears that abortion should be legal to keep it “safe”, we naturally ask\u00a0“How safe are these legal abortions for the babies?”. Even if an abortion is done “safely”, it still results in at least one mortality<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

False Dilemma<\/h3>\n

Not only that, the pro-choice advocate presents a false dilemma. There\u00a0is, in fact, a third option available to us:<\/p>\n

3. Make abortion illegal<\/strong>. Provide\u00a0mothers with ample support<\/strong>\u00a0so that they can carry babies to term. The mother can then either care for the child<\/strong> or put\u00a0the child up for adoption<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"PregnancySupport\"<\/p>\n

Doesn’t this seem like the better, non-violent option? Isn’t that the more civilized choice? If so, wouldn’t it make more sense to invest in adoption services and pregnancy care, rather than in supporting institutions\u00a0which bring about the death of an innocent?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I would like to continue this pro-life blog series\u00a0by briefly responding to something which is regularly\u00a0brought up during discussions on abortion. Objection I have often heard it said, even by people who think that abortion is terrible and wrong, that they would prefer to see abortion remain legal for fear that, if it were made illegal, it would just<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[232,2969,2486,2985,1728,1601],"class_list":["post-23977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apologetics","tag-abortion","tag-featured","tag-march-for-life-2014","tag-march-for-life-2015","tag-pro-choice","tag-pro-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FeaturedKeepLegal.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23977"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54441,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23977\/revisions\/54441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}