Use This Framework for Dealing with Abortion Questions

Here's a helpful framework for dealing with abortion questions. Recommended!

Alan Shlemon recently gave a defense of the pro-life position at Central Michigan University and he focused on just two claims:

(1) the unborn is a distinct, living, and whole human being from the moment of conception;

(2) abortion is discrimination: it disqualifies a group of human beings (the unborn) from being valuable because of an arbitrary quality or characteristic.

He then fielded objections from the audience. The vast majority of objections against the pro-life view, he says, come in one of two forms.

They either assume the unborn is not a human being.

Or, they disqualify the unborn from being a valuable human being based on an arbitrary quality or characteristic.

When I hear a defense for abortion, I figure out which category it falls in.

Then, I can show them the misstep by appealing to one of the two claims I defended in my opening remarks.

The simplicity of this is excellent, and principled.

HT: Between Two Worlds