Our May 7th blogpost, “How much is a human life worth,” generated some pushback with this response:

“You hit the nail on the head when you called the fetuses “unborn humans.” Until they are born, they are not humans, but potential humans.

Why do you never talk about stillborns? Approximately 0.6% of all births are stillborn. Without abortions that number would be higher. Also about 0.2% of mothers die in childbirth or during pregnancies. That number too would be higher without abortions.

Another problem I have with anti-abortionists is that once a child is born, when it has become a verifiable human life, no one cares what happens to it. You just walk away, thinking your job is done. Well, it is 18 years away from being “done”! It doesn’t matter to you if a child has a proper family, a safe home, enough food to eat, or sufficient love to become a happy adult.

You are hypocritical.

I won’t even talk about your defense of the death penalty, except to say it is no longer pro-life. Because of age you switch to being pro-death. Bah humbug!”

Like many supporters of abortion rights, this writer blends misinformation with straw man arguments. Let us clear the air point-by-point:

“You hit the nail on the head when you called the fetuses “unborn humans.” Until they are born, they are not humans, but potential humans.

Actually, scientists disagree.

In an interview of 5337 biologists, 96% of biologists said human life (not potential human life) begins at fertilization. This matters. When surveyed voters were asked: who do you think is most qualified to tell them when human life begins? Biologists? Philosophers? Religious leaders? Supreme Court Justices? Eighty percent said biologists.

Specifically, embryologists tell us human life begins when the sperm and ovum, neither of which can sustain life or direct growth by itself, come together at fertilization. For the first time the new life has all 46 chromosomes and all the directions (DNA) it needs for the rest of life. The sex of the baby, the color of the hair, everything is already fixed. Humanity is fixed, and personhood is fixed, as if there were even a distinction.

But, there’s the rub. Abortion proponents DO want to make a distinction. They suggest that if a living ‘thing’ isn’t neurologically functioning as a human being, it’s not a person. The argument doesn’t make sense. By the same logic, you could kill a sleeping person, someone in a coma, or the handicapped with moral impunity.

The burden of proof that the unborn human at 9 months in the womb … or even 9 seconds, isn’t a human person, despite all evidence to the contrary, lies with abortion advocates.

Why do you never talk about stillborns? Approximately 0.6% of all births are stillborn. Without abortions that number would be higher. Also about 0.2% of mothers die in childbirth or during pregnancies. That number too would be higher without abortions.

The writer suggests that somehow human abortion is ‘therapeutic’ by reducing the incidence of stillborn births and childbirth mortality.

The Centers for Disease Control tell us some 24,000 babies are stillborn a year, and that some 700 women die a year as a result of pregnancy delivery complications. Each of these deaths is a profound tragedy.

By contrast, roughly 862,320 unique human beings were aborted in 2017 according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute. Each of these deaths is a profound tragedy. There is no comparison: human abortion is 35 times as deadly.

Another problem I have with anti-abortionists is that once a child is born, when it has become a verifiable human life, no one cares what happens to it. You just walk away, thinking your job is done. Well, it is 18 years away from being “done”! It doesn’t matter to you if a child has a proper family, a safe home, enough food to eat, or sufficient love to become a happy adult.

You are hypocritical.

Who told you such falsehoods? These assertions would be laughable if they weren’t so inaccurate.

The question is, why are so many supporters of abortion rights so oblivious to the loving outreach to “born children” by thousands upon thousands of pro-life supporters in the U.S. and beyond?

Because their rant is a straw man argument meant to change the subject and demonize the pro-life movement while attempting to present abortion advocates in a compassionate light.

Nonetheless, let us shine a light on their straw man and light a match to this lie.

Pro-life Christians care for kids after they’re born

An entire industry of pro-life faith-driven organizations provides tangible outreach for babies AFTER they’re born. The Wall Street ran an entire piece on an incredible organization called the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) providing tangible assistance to children.

Groups like Catholic Charities, Lutheran Family Services, Focus on the Family, and Bethany Christian Services have been around for a long time. Dynamic new groups, members of CAFO, have launched in recent years, such as:

• Replanted Ministries: they offer post placement support for adoptive and foster families.
• Patty’s Hope:  they provide counseling, training and housing for biological mothers of kids in foster care.
• Reece’s Rainbow:  they advocate for children with special needs and awards grants to families who adopt them.

Pro-life Christians don’t receive public funding

The WSJ points out that these groups don’t receive public funding.  Abortion cynics sneer that these ‘do-gooders’ are only doing it to gain converts to the faith, which is kind of rich.

Think about it. Big Abortion and their political, media, and Hollywood allies try to gain converts with a club. The latest is their insistence that we scrap the Hyde Amendment and require pro-life taxpayers to fund abortions through their tax dollars.

The power of love

By contrast, pro-life Christians use love, not a club, to gain converts. Jedd Medefind, the president of CAFO put it this way:

“If you just want to proselytize, you can go to the park and pass out tracts. Adopting or fostering or becoming involved in the life of a struggling family is far more costly than cheap proselytizing.”

So why do they do what they do? Is it out of guilt? Is it just a duty? Mr. Medefind says it’s more than that:

“Being loved is the most transformative power on earth. The Christian gospel said our God welcomes us amidst our great need. We seek to reflect that same heart.”

The Knights of Columbus

If ever there was a pro-life group that helps babies after they’re born, it is the Knights of Columbus.

The Knights of Columbus supports the Special Olympics, you know the very kids abortion advocates abort at alarming rates. (Some 90% Down Syndrome babies are aborted.)

They buy ultra sound machines for pro-life pregnancy centers.

They provide funds to support refugee relief to help persecuted groups facing genocide around the world.

And they provide coats for kids; wheelchairs for the lame; and homes for the homeless.

Local outreach

Have you ever seen a Knight handing out Tootsie Rolls when you walk into a local grocery store, and do you ever wonder what happens to the money you donate? Here’s one example in Des Moines, Iowa: Holy Trinity Catholic Church’s Knight’s chapter has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Ruby Van Meter school over the years.

Ruby Van Meter is a school for kids with significant intellectual disabilities. The Knights help these “actual living human beings.”

They buy coats for actual human beings.

They save lives of actual Christian human beings being persecuted in dangerous corners of the world.

And they improve the lives of actual disabled young people.

Knights are demonized by abortion zealots

This is a compassionate organization abortion advocates should be applauding, not demonizing, but demonized they are. Two pro-abortion U.S. Senators, Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, both said membership in the Knights of Columbus disqualifies men from being appointed to judgeships.

Senator Hirono charged that the Knights have staked out “extreme positions” based on Catholic teaching that supports traditional marriage and the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death.

In fully McCarthyism mode, she demanded to know of a judicial nominee who was a member of the Knights:

“If confirmed, do you intend to end your membership with this organization to avoid any appearance of bias?”

And Senator Harris showed her disdain by characterizing “the Knights of Columbus [as an] an all-male society comprised of primarily Catholic men … [that] opposes a woman’s right to choose.”

Can you see how abortion poisons rational thinking?

The largest pro life group in the world

Here is a partial list of the active outreach to kids after they’re born provided by the largest pro life group in the world. They are …

√ Reducing infant mortality.

√ Boosting the number of kids with health coverage.

√ Increasing access to healthy food for the hungry.

√ Lessening the number of families and individuals forced to live in emergency shelters.

√ Expanding the quantity of affordable housing units.

√ Working to increase fathers’ involvement in families.

√ Expanding access to quality affordable early childhood education.

√ Increasing the rate of high school completion.

√ Raising the number of youth participating in postsecondary education or workforce training.

√ Adopting out more children than any other provider in the country.

We refer, of course, to Catholic Charities, a group for whom IFL Executive Director, Maggie DeWitte, once worked. And this is just the Catholics. It doesn’t even include the great work being done by the Lutherans, Evangelical Christians, and other outstanding faith-based and secular organizations. 

On what do abortion proponents base this straw man argument? Nothing. It is fabricated out of thin air to mask the moral shortcomings of their own position.

For the record, what is Planned Parenthood doing to help actual human beings AFTER they’re born?

I won’t even talk about your defense of the death penalty, except to say it is no longer pro-life. Because of age you switch to being pro-death. Bah humbug!”

For the record, this is an actual response we received from an abortion rights proponent. We didn’t change a word.

Regarding the death penalty, this is another straw man argument that attempts to change the subject. Human abortion and human execution are two different issues.

The difference between a million and 23 deaths

The writer fails to acknowledge the innocence of the human person in the womb, one million of whom were “executed” (aborted, in 2013) for being unwanted in contrast to 23 people who were executed in 2017 for the crime of murder.

Does he not understand the difference between an innocent baby in the womb and a murderer?

Does he not understand the difference between a million innocent deaths and 23 just punishments?

Abortion proponents who raise this point DO know the difference. That is why this, like the previous arguments, is a straw man.

The largest pro-life group in the world is the Roman Catholic Church, which opposes the death penalty without exception. Many, maybe even most pro-lifers we know, oppose the death penalty.

So to this writer who dismisses pro-lifers as being hypocritical, we hope you’ll reconsider your dismissive “bah humbug” in light of the good work being done by the pro-life community.

Thank-you for writing.

[This blogpost was originally published at www.IowansforLIFE.org. Thanks for permission to republish it on Quiner’s Diner.]