Some people question how a person can be both pro-life and pro-war.
While this question may initially seem fair, it is in fact based on a false premise.
In reality, one would be very hard pressed to really find anyone in favor of war itself. In fact, many of those who are pro-life are especially loving of peace. Before going forward, let’s be clear: the pro-life position is incompatible with being pro-war.
However, in some ways, war and abortion are very different things. Abortion should be opposed in all circumstances while war should be opposed in almost all circumstances.
It must be noted that there are some circumstances, such as following an unprovoked attacked, when it may be justifiable to take military action to preserve the innocent lives of citizens. In other words, a defensive war could be justified by an honest pro-lifer.
While no one hopes that they will ever be in the situation in which they would have to use violence, there are some situations in which it might be the only option.
The same is not true for abortion – unlike adult aggressors, the preborn child rarely ever presents immediate danger to the life of the mother, in modern times. Furthermore, the unborn child is never an aggressor towards the mother from whom she must defend herself.
This discussion should not be construed as to support war or the effects of war. War is very detrimental to a society and to human life. It should be the last resort and should only be pursued under limited circumstances.
While abortion and war are different, they are also similar in the fact that they lead to a loss of life.
The death tolls in some of America’s well-known wars were as follows…
The Revolutionary War – the U.S. military saw 4,435 deaths.
The Civil War – the U.S. military saw 623,026 deaths
World War One – the U.S. military saw 116,708 deaths
World War Two – the U.S. military saw 407,316 deaths [1]
So, in the history of the United States, there have been approximately 1.2 million American deaths as a result of war.
This is approximately the same number of deaths as is seen every single year, in America alone, as a result of legalized abortion.
The unfortunate truth is that no war is as great a destroyer of life as the war against the unborn. The death toll for this war now totals nearly 53 million since abortion was made legal in 1973.
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References
[1] BrothersWar. (2011). “Total Military Deaths for American Wars.” http://www.brotherswar.com/Perspective-9.htm
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This article includes opinions, not all statements are facts. War is never the only choice and there are times, albeit extremely rare, that the unborn is affecting the health of the mother. I would be interested to see some facts of how many children are born that go into poverty and never make it out, suffering their entire lives. Pro lifers need to be exactly that, making sure the child has a good life beyond birth. We need to be concerned with more than just whether or not the child is born. Otherwise your war argument falls apart too. You’re only looking at killing as wrong completely 100% of the time with abortions, but you’re not following the same logic when it comes to war. It’s as if you admit there is black and white only in one area but gray area in another, to suit your arguments. You have to admit there is gray area in both or that both are black and white, but you can’t apply conflicting logic to 2 scenarios just to fit your beliefs.
I have left you a reply…
Tyler, there are several things that you are saying that are now commonplace amongst the pro-choice position and their arguments. The first is the ad hominem fallacy. Your points (regarding how one cannot take up abortion without also taking up war or whatever) attack the person’s motives as opposed to the person’s message. This is true. In addition, does it follow that one has to take up, individually, every cause? Would you demand a war protester to also join MADD and thus subject him/her to the same ad hominem? So, regarding hypocrisy- how sincere is your point? Lastly, and more importantly, there is a philosophical difference between, ‘murder’ and ‘killing.’ Therefore, because I believe abortion is murder, I will use a simple syllogism to prove my point. I will give two propositions and a conclusion. Because, it is obvious to me, that the prochoice position is full of emotional appeals, I will appeal to reason.
Please feel free to refute my syllogism:
A) It is wrong to take innocent human life
B) Abortion takes innocent human life
C) Therefore, abortion is wrong.
The real question behind the pro-war question is why have christians been politically supportive of war ( Iraq, vietnam, ww1, etc ) which are essentially nation-state conflicts about power and money for the benefit of certain special interests.
Its funny that when counting the number of people killed in wars, you only mention US solders….You failed to mention the millions of people were were murdered by US soldiers in Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan.
You cannot be pro-life and support war never ending continuous war (neocon style). If it is wrong to take a life by abortion, then it is wrong to take a life by war. War is death.
I thought there was separation of church and state. I personally believe that abortion is wrong if a person gets pregnant and does not consider the consequences. I personally believe this is highly irresponsible and selfish. Thank God, I have exercised restraint in my life and have not been in this situation. On an individual level, I have succeeded in adhering to my belief. I have heard people say that war is different because the people killed are combatants.
However, in war, children die, pregnant mothers die. In Iraq, many civilians died. Something like 1 million Iraqis died, civilians and non-civilians. Why even bring up the number of Americans killed in war? It pales in comparison. And what about native Americans? About 98% of their population was wiped out. This is genocide, but too quickly “Christians” has forgotten this, and it is not that far into our past.
In most wars, civilians are everywhere, so how could the death of unborn children not happen, especially if the war is conducted in civilian areas? I have heard from some prolife people that there is no excuse for an abortion: rape, incest, a discovered severe genetic problem. I personally know of someone that new of a genetic problem and did not believe in abortion. The child was born and is essentially brain dead. At six years old, he is unable to sit up, cannot communicate, is not responsive to any stimulation (e.g., hugging, holding, cuddling, talking), cannot eat and has to be fed through a tube. Care is provided by nurses at least 10 hours a day. Doctors and other specialists indicate this condition will not change. The family’s insurance does not want to pay, and medical bills are huge. The family will have to file for bankruptcy. What is the point?
As to the motives of war, our country can be viewed as a plutocracy. There is a lot of money to be made in war. Looking into the matter, I discovered that business made about $16 trillion in today’s money off of WWII. Many individuals involved in Iraq have made huge amounts of money and are still making money. So war is not just about defending and self preservation but about making money. And this goes back decades. Prescott Bush was caught getting money to the Nazis, and unless I am wrong, they were ruthlessly killing. How is this defendable?
Regarding abortions for “convenience”, if baby is born to poor circumstances (poverty, drug abuse, etc.), where is the support of prolife advocates when this life comes into the world? There is talk of freeloaders, those who don’t want to work. But often the same people that want that baby into the world want to cut things like food stamps, planned parenthood, daycare, contraceptives, etc. So it is great when the baby is here, but then this baby becomes part of the problem of “takers” in our society.
There is an assumption, that legal (!) abortion is causing the death statistics. But how about illegal, that would be there (and there certainly would be one) and cause death/health risks of children and mothers anyway? Can we assume, that none of these would happen, if it was illegal?
It also poses the question, if the real reason of abortion is its legality or some other reason.