Post Author: Bill Pratt 

In part 2, we pick up at argument 3. Again, our guide through these responses to common pro-abortion arguments will be Mike Adams, who authored Letters to a Young Progressive. Adams addresses the abortion issue in Letter 8 of his book.

Argument 3: “It is wrong to force a woman to bring an unwanted baby into the world.”

Put simply, there is no such thing as an “unwanted baby.” If a baby is unwanted by its mother, there is always, and I mean always, someone else who would want to adopt the baby. It is very difficult to adopt a baby in this country because so many children are unnecessarily aborted.

But there is something even more sick and twisted about the “unwanted baby” excuse—it insinuates that abortion prevents child abuse. But abortion is child abuse—the most severe kind, where the baby ends up dead. Please review argument #1 before reading further.

The very idea that we would murder children to prevent child abuse, which usually takes the form of simple battery, elevates intellectual laziness to an art. It is the intellectual equivalent of promoting arson in order to prevent burglary. It is true that burglary rates will decrease when we have burned down everyone’s houses, but by now you get the point.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that abortion has not been an effective means of stopping child abuse (even if we exclude abortion from the definition of child abuse). In 1973, there were 167,000 reported instances of child abuse. By 1982, reported instances of child abuse had risen to 929,000. That is an increase of over 500 percent in less than a decade.

Argument 4: “It is wrong for a woman to be forced to bring a handicapped baby into the world.”

It is frequently suggested that abortion is morally permissible when doctors discover, prior to birth, that a baby suffers from certain physical handicaps such as Down syndrome or cerebral palsy.

My response usually goes something like this: “I agree that there are far too many handicapped people in the world. Every summer I take busloads of people who are wheelchair-bound on a trip to the Grand Canyon. We enjoy the view for a few minutes before I roll them off the edge of the Canyon. They are usually dead long before they hit the bottom. That is a good thing for them and for society as a whole. It is better to be dead than to be handicapped. Whether they realize it or not, their lives are not worth living.”

This scenario provokes a strong reaction—as it should. Something about it makes advocates of aborting the handicapped look grossly insensitive. This is usually when they argue that they are not killing a handicapped person but rather preventing a handicapped person from ever being born. Please review argument #1. The last time I spoke on this topic at Summit Ministries, a handsome, intelligent, and athletic 6’2” African American student approached me and told me, “I was misdiagnosed with cerebral palsy before I was born. The doctors were wrong. I am so glad my mother had me. Thank you for your speech.”

In part 3, we will finish up with responses to the last 2 arguments offered by abortion proponents.