Quotes Archives - Page 6 of 350

Presbyterian minister defends abortion: “we share the belief that all life is important”

Presbyterian minister Sarai Schnucker Beck wrote an essay defending legal abortion in a book collecting abortion-related essays from religious women.

She frames her essay as a letter to a pro-life friend. She wrote:

“Because of our faith, I think that we also share a belief that all life is important – human beings, animals, plants, germs in the sea, birds in the air, all part of God’s creation. For me, this has come to mean, more now than in the past, taking with great seriousness the potential human life that is the fetus.

But for both of us, I believe that it also means taking with great seriousness the present life of a woman in a difficult and complicated situation…

Perhaps it would be better to think of the fetus and the mother as having “concurrent” claims. That is, both claims occur at the same time, and both are important… At times the potential life that is the fetus may have a stronger claim, and at times the mother’s claim may override…

I am convinced that you and I agree that life is valuable because it is given by God.”

Sarai Schnucker Beck “A Common Language” in Phyllis Tickle, ed. Confessing Conscience: Churched Women on Abortion (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1990) 35 – 36

She calls a preborn baby “potential life” and values the child the same as nonhuman life. But a baby in the womb is a human, not a germ, a bird, or a plant.

It’s interesting that she calls a pregnant woman a “mother.” How can a human mother be anything but a mother to a human baby?

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Media bias in the 2012 election

A study by the Pew Research Center reveals media bias in the 2012 election.

This doesn’t relate to abortion directly but does relate to it indirectly. Pro-lifers have been saying for a long time that the mainstream media (CNN, MSNBC, etc.) are biased against the pro-life cause.

It backs up the claim that the information one gets on issues, presumably including abortion, varies based on what news one watches.

Here are the results:

Coverage for Obama was:

On CNN: 21% negative, 18% positive

On FOX News: 46% negative, 6% positive

On MSNBC: 15% negative, 39% positive

Coverage for Mitt Romney was:

On CNN: 36% negative, 11% positive

On FOX News: 12% negative, 28% positive

On MSNBC: 71% negative, 3% positive

So we see there was considerable media bias in the 2012 election.

Dutchess Harris Uncovering Bias in the News (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Abdo Publishing, 2018) 9

Information on media bias directly concerning abortion.

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Mike Huckabee shares a picture of little Elisha, who was adopted as an embryo

In an introduction to a book about children adopted as frozen embryos, or “snowflake babies,” politician Mike Huckabee writes:

“… I met Maria Lancaster in 2007. I was running for president when she approached me on the campaign trail in Bellevue, Washington, and handed me a photograph of her daughter, Elisha.

Elisha came to her parents through embryo adoption. A surplus embryo from another couple’s fertility treatment, she was frozen for four years at just two cells. In 2003, she was taken out of the freezer and placed inside Maria’s womb. When Elisha was born, she was the 36th child in the world to be born in such a fashion…

I thanked Maria and tucked the snapshot she gave me in my wallet. I couldn’t quit thinking about this little girl who represented such a clear picture that life is valuable. Elisha lives a full life and is loved by her parents. And I couldn’t help but wonder, What would have happened if Jeff and Maria Lancaster had not considered and valued the fact that an embryo is a human life? She could have been a medical experiment or discarded as medical waste.

During ABC’s Nightline program later in the campaign, an interviewer asked me, “What do you have in your wallet?” I pulled out Elisha’s picture and briefly told the story.

I still carry her picture in my wallet today. I have kept it there for six years. When people ask me why I am pro-life, I open my wallet, bring out the photo and show them a living reason. I have to ask them, “Would you be willing to tell the mother of this child that her child wasn’t worth saving?”…

Elisha is a real person. She is not just tissue. She is not fodder for medical experimentation. She is a loving little girl with a powerful story. And she, and others like her, are worth saving.”

Mike Huckabee “Foreword” from Souls on Ice: True Miracle Stories of Embryo Adoption (Beaverton, Oregon: Good Catch Publishing, 2013) 21 – 22

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Pro-abortion philosopher admits that legalizing abortion led to lack of respect for other human lives

Philosopher Peter Singer, who supports both abortion and infanticide, wrote: him

“The prohibition on the direct killing of the fetus was the first area in which the sanctity of life ethic was directly challenged by the quality of life ethic, and lost.

Abortion foreshadowed what was about to become accepted practice in other areas, including the withdrawal of treatment from patients in a hopeless condition, and the selective nontreatment of disabled infants. While opponents of abortion have made this point repeatedly, those who support abortion prefer…to see the issue as one of freedom of choice.”

Peter Singer Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994) 90

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Baptist pastor gives reasons for her pro-choice stand

Baptist pastor Lauren Jones Mayfield:

“…when I was invited to join Vice President Kamala Harris’ roundtable of patients and health care providers facing the impact of abortion restrictions in their states this month, I was grateful for the opportunity to represent the tens of thousands of clergy around the country who strongly support access to reproductive health care—including abortion access—as a moral issue and a calling supported by our faith’s first teaching to do no harm and love our neighbors.”

LAUREN JONES MAYFIELD “I Can’t Do My Job as a Pastor With Abortion Laws Like Texas’ S.B. 8 in Place” Time SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

Is this love? Is this compatible with “do no harm?”

shout your abortion — 10 weeks after conception

Remains of child after abortion at 15 weeks

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Pro-Choice leader says abortion prevents “infant mortality”

In a very ironic comment, Terry O’Neill, president of pro-choice group NOW, said:

“From a public health point of view, abortion care, no less than contraception, is an essential measure to prevent the heartbreak of infant mortality….”

Terry O’Neill “Abortion, Like Contraception, Is Essential Health Care That Saves Lives” NOW May 13, 2014

This was originally published in the Huffington Post.

Below: Potential victim of an abortion.

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American College of Pediatricians says life begins at conception

In the official policy statement from the American College of Pediatricians in 2004, the statement says that the organization:

“concurs with the body of scientific evidence that human life begins at conception – fertilization… Scientific and medical discoveries over the past three decades [since Roe vs. Wade] have only verified and solidified this age-old truth.”

Quoted in Fred de Miranda, MD, FCP, “Position Statements: When Human Life Begins” American College of Pediatricians, March 17, 2004

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Pro-Choice Author: Abortion carries “social shame” and “psychological burden”

From pro-choice author Melissa Harris-Perry:

“… Abortion still carries tremendous social shame in addition to its personal psychological burden.

Activists for reproductive rights have a hard time convincing women and families who have terminated to be part of a movement that protects the right to terminate. Many understandably prefer not to be publicly associated with the stigma and potential violence that comes with standing up for choice.”

Melissa Harris-Perry “Countering Antichoice Terrorism” The Nation June 2, 2009

I don’t think there are many pro-lifers who think being pro-choice brings with it a stigma.

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Former US Surgeon General: Abortions to Save the Mother’s Life are “Nonexistent”

Former Surgeon General of the United States, Dr C Everett Koop:

“The life of the mother argument surfaces in every debate concerning abortion. The fact of the matter is that abortion as a necessity to save the life of the mother is so rare as to be nonexistent.”

Human Life International “Does Legal Abortion Save Lives?” Pro-Life Talking Points October 21, 2011

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Ethicist calls disabled babies “defective,” says they should be allowed to die

BD Colen argues for withholding medical treatment from disabled babies and letting them die. He writes:

“Perhaps decisions involving the care of hopelessly ill and defective newborns should be left to those traditional processes, to parents and physicians who do the best they can under difficult circumstances.

Until such time as society is willing to pay the bill for truly humane institutions or 24-hour home care for all such infants, to offer families alternatives other than death or living death, shouldn’t these decisions be left to those who will have to live with them?”

BD Colen, Hard Choices, 1986, quoted in Is Infant Euthanasia Ethical? (Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1989) 215

Disabled people aren’t “defective” and our family’s lives aren’t “living death.” ALL human beings deserve basic medical care, regardless of level of ability.

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