Dear silent pro-lifer, Let’s fight together.

I write a lot of articles responding to David Boonin for HDI. Most of them are critiques. I want to do something different with this one. I am actually going to defend Boonin because I believe that an argument that he makes gets misunderstood in pro-life literature. As a result, we might be misrepresenting him. Recognizing our potential misunderstandings is important to do because we ourselves often get misunderstood by the pro-choice side and we get rightly annoyed by this. So we should treat people the way that we want to be treated. (Luke 6:31) That means doing our best to understand Boonin’s argument. And when we do misunderstand him, we need to own up to it so we don’t bear false witness (however unintentionally) against him. (Exodus 20:16.)    For this article, I will do three things. First, I will begin by explaining the argument that the misunderstanding revolves around. Second, I will outline some of the counterarguments to Boonin’s argument. Third, I will show why these responses miss the mark. Fourth, I will…

Being in conversation with people who use a term like “parasite” to refer to another human being presents an opportunity to extend grace and kindness. Let’s take this as an opportunity to show people what a different kind of conversation can look like.