Pro-choice, Or Pro-person?

Over 40% of those morally opposed to abortion would help make arrangements for a friend or close relative, while a staggering 76% would provide emotional support to those obtaining abortions, according to a recent study. Six percent of individuals morally opposed to abortion would help pay for the procedure. While it may be easy to label these people as hypocrites, NYU sociology professor and lead author on the study Sarah Cowan says, “They are not. They are at a moral crossroads, pulled by their opposition to abortion and by their inclination to support people they care about.”

“Discordant benevolence,” which refers to the willingness to help despite conflicts with personal values, is dominated by three logics: the view that friends and family members are worthy of help despite imperfections, that friends and family are an exception precisely because they are friends or family, and that friends or family members make independent moral decisions and it is impossible to have an effect on those decisions. 

The ability to support pre- and post-abortive women, without endorsing abortion itself, is shown by pregnancy centers and other pro-life organizations worldwide. “Our service is not contingent upon what choice she makes,” Houston Pregnancy Help Center CEO Sylvia Johnson says. “We’re going to serve her if she continues the pregnancy, and we’re going to serve her if she decides to terminate the baby.” The choice to support the mother–not the decisions she makes–is what sets apart pro-life individuals and organizations. 

“Pro-choice advocates are not pro-abortion, but pro-choice, and that is an important distinction,” writes Katie Clements in a BYU Political Review. It is an important distinction indeed. The left repeatedly declares that they are pro-choice, not pro-life; with their own words they admit to supporting a choice, not a person. But it goes even deeper than that. Jamie Baldwin wrote in a New York Times letter to the editor that “Pro-choice advocates…do not believe that humans can claim to know what God wants.” Christians, on the other hand, believe that God has clearly expressed His will in the Bible, which openly condemns the murder of babies and provides multiple examples of proper support. Jesus changed society by welcoming those in political and socio-economical minorities and challenging them to live a life bigger than themselves. This ability to look at the whole person and not only the decisions they have made is what enables us to see and encourage the potential in others. 

According to the pro-life group Human Coalition, 76% of women seeking their services said that they would choose life if only their circumstances were different. We have an opportunity to show that we are listening to women–listening to their desire to be mothers. This is where our ability to provide proper support comes in: by providing financial assistance, education and job opportunities, and connections to local churches. Instead of supporting a choice that destroys two lives–the child’s and the mother’s–we have now supported individuals and improved and advanced the lives of countless people.

Photo by Vonecia Carswell on Unsplash

Wendy Moses

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Wendy Moses is an author and disability advocate from Milton, Florida. She has a passion for reading, dogs, and writing at the local coffee shop.

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