pro-life

Pro-life redirects here. For other uses, see Pro-life (disambiguation)

Pro-life protesters at Parliament Square, London on 20 May 2008.

The pro-life movement is a political and social movement focused chiefly around opposition to abortion, and support for the legal banning of elective abortion. Those involved in the movement generally maintain that human fetuses and embryos are persons, and therefore have a right to life. The movement also includes opposition to euthanasia, the death penalty, human cloning, and research involving human embryonic stem cells. The pro-life movement is commonly supported among Christians and Muslims^[1]. On the issue of abortion, pro-life campaigners are opposed by pro-choice campaigners, who generally advocate for what they see as women's reproductive rights.

Overview

Pro-life individuals generally believe that human life should be valued either from fertilization or implantation until natural death. The contemporary pro-life movement is typically, but not exclusively, associated with Christian morality (especially in the United States), and has influenced certain strains of bioethical utilitarianism.^[2] From that viewpoint, any action which destroys an embryo or fetus kills a person. Any deliberate destruction of human life is considered ethically or morally wrong and is not considered to be mitigated by any benefits to others, as such benefits come at the expense of the life of a person. In some cases, this belief extends to opposing abortion of fetuses that would almost certainly expire within a short time after birth, such as anencephalic fetuses. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are also opposed by many pro-life people based on a belief that all human life is sacred and must be protected.

Some pro-lifers oppose certain forms of birth control, particularly hormonal contraception such as ECPs, which prevent the implantation of an embryo. Because they believe that the term "pregnancy" should be defined so as to begin at fertilization, they refer to these contraceptives as abortifacients.^[3] The Catholic Church recognizes this view,^[4] but the possibility that hormonal contraception has post-fertilization effects is disputed within the scientific community. (See also: Mechanism of action and United States legal and ethical controversies.)

Attachment to a pro-life position is often but not exclusively connected to religious beliefs about the sanctity of life (see also Culture of Life). Exclusively secular-humanist positions against abortion tend to be a minority viewpoint among pro-life advocates.^[5] While this group is a distinct minority, they are a growing and burgeoning movement, and seek to put new meaning into the phrase "pro-life".^[6]

While feminism is typically associateed with the pro-choice position, there is a significant minority that is pro-life. ^[7]

Religion and Pro-Life Movements

The variety in opinion on the issue of abortion is reflected in the diverse views of religious groups. For example, the Roman Catholic Church opposes abortion under almost all circumstances, while traditional Jewish teachings sanction abortion as a means of safeguarding the life and well-being of the pregnant woman.^[8]

Christianity

Two people holding a pro-life sign at a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Estádio do Pacaembu in São Paulo, Brazil in 2007. Translation: "No to abortion". The rest of the crowd have both arms raised in a prayer gesture.

A monument to the unborn in Ste Geneviève, Missouri.

Much of the pro-life movement in the United States and around the world finds support in denominations such as the Roman Catholic Church, conservative and fundamentalist protestant denominations, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).^{[9][10][11][12]} However, the pro-life teachings of these denominations vary considerably. The Eastern Orthodox Church considers abortion to be immoral in all cases. According to the Patriarchate of Moscow, all abortions are evil, but priests are told not to withhold communion from women who received an abortion because their life was at risk if the baby was born. The National Association of Evangelicals,and the LDS Church oppose abortion on demand, but consider abortion allowable in cases with clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, dire threat to the physical health of the pregnant woman, or when a pregnancy results from rape or incest.^[13] The Southern Baptist Convention believes that abortion is allowable only in cases where there is a direct threat to the life of the woman.^[13] The Roman Catholic Church teaches that abortion is immoral in all cases (See Catechism of the Catholic Church 2270-2275). Other "mainstream" protestant denominations such as the Episcopal Church, Disciples of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church, Quakers, and the United Church of Christ are pro-choice.^[13]

Islam

As elective abortion is banned in most Islamic countries, there is generally little abortion debate.^[14] In many Muslim societies, Women must gain consent (medical, religious, state or spousal) for an abortion, which restricts abortion access. Muslim scholars have generally considered abortion to be morally wrong or Haram except when the life of the pregnant woman is at risk.^[1]

Hinduism

A pro-life movement is small in India^[15], the largest Hindu nation.^[16] Most abortions in India are done for sex selection, with boys being favored.^[17] As a result, activists who argue against abortion in India are typically women's rights activists as well as the religiously devout. Recently, these activists took Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft to court, suing to remove web ads that sell products that enable parents to determine the sex of a fetus.^[17] Hindu religious texts typically denounce sex selective abortions and strongly disapprove of elective abortions.^[18]

Jewish Pro-Life Activism

Polls of Jews in America report that 88% of American Jews are pro-choice.^[19] However, 10% of Jews in America believe that "Abortions should be more difficult to obtain than they are now."^[19] While there are no pro-life Jewish organizations, there are prominent Jewish pro-life activists such as Michael Medved who has said, "Jewish law for millennia has been extremely clear, that abortion is only permitted when the life of the mother is directly threatened... To link Jewish tradition to the pro-choice position is 'ludicrous and ignorant'."^[19]

In Israel, the major pro-life organization is Efrat.^[20] Efrat activists primarily raise funds to relieve the "financial and social pressures" on pregnant women so that they will not terminate their pregnancies.^[20] Efrat is not known to do any other kind of activism.^[20]

History of pro-life movements

The Roman Catholic Church in America

Before the Roe v. Wade decision making abortion legal in the United States, the pro-life movement in the United States was comprised of elite lawyers, politicians and doctors, almost all of whom were Catholic.^[21] The only coordinated opposition to abortion during the early 1970s came from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Family Life Bureau, also a Catholic organization. Mobilization of a wide-scale pro-life movement among Catholics began quickly after the Roe v. Wade decision with the creation of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). The NRLC also organized non-Catholics, eventually becoming the strongest pro-life voice in the United States.^[21]

Evangelicals in America

Randall Herbert Balmer, Ph.D., argues in his book, Thy Kingdom Come, that despite the popular belief that anti-abortion sentiments galvanized the fundamentalist evangelical movement, what actually galvanized the movement was evangelical opposition to the American Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The IRS stripped evangelical universities, like Bob Jones University, from their tax-exempt status for remaining racially segregated.^[22][23][24]

Before 1980, the Southern Baptist Convention advocated for abortion rights.^[25] During the 1971 and 1974 Southern Baptist Conventions, Southern Baptists were called upon "to work for legislation that will allow the possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape, incest, clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother."^[25] W. Barry Garrett wrote in the Baptist Press, "Religious liberty, human equality and justice are advanced by the [Roe v. Wade] Supreme Court Decision."^[25]

By 1980, conservative protestant leaders became vocal in their opposition to legalized abortion^[22], and by the early 1990s Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition of America became a leading pro-life voice.^[26] In 2005, Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said that making abortion illegal is more important than any other issue, including the fight against poverty.^[27]

"Consistent Life Ethic"

A major stated goal within the pro-life movement is to "restore legal protection to innocent human life."^[28] This protection would include fetuses and embryos, persons who cannot communicate their wishes due to physical or mental incapacitation, and those who are too weak to resist being euthanized.

Some pro-life advocates, such as those subscribing to the philosophy of a Consistent Life Ethic, oppose virtually all acts that end human life. They would argue that abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, and unjust war are all wrong. Others argue that the death penalty can be a fair punishment for murder, justifiably inflicted by lawful authority, whereas abortion is an attack on an innocent. In recent years, the issue of the death penalty has gained more attention because some pro-life advocates wish to create a more unified pro-life ideal that prohibits the death penalty. The majority of Roman Catholic theologians are strong proponents of this unified position (Citation Needed). The increasing attention paid to this controversial position may result from the large Roman Catholic membership of the pro-life movement, a membership that is also striving to adhere to recent religious statements from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the death penalty.^[29]

The debate

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A pro-life memorial in Bytom, Poland. Partial translation: "Dedicated in memory of unborn children – victims of abortion".

In some countries, the abortion issue remains one of the broader and more controversial societal issues. A broad spectrum of positions exists on this issue, from those who advocate abortion-on-demand at any point during a pregnancy on the one end (100% pro-choice), to those who oppose every form of abortion on the other (100% pro-life). Between these two there is a considerable range of positions. Some oppose abortion, but are content to work at reducing the number of abortions through prevention of unwanted pregnancies, a task they accomplish through encouraging abstinence, targeted sex education and/or increased availability of contraception. Current legislation in United States Congress, the Pregnant Women Support Act, seeks to reduce the abortion rate in the U.S. without making any procedure illegal and without overturning Roe v. Wade. There are many who support legal abortion within the first two trimesters but oppose late-term abortions. Those who oppose late term abortions usually take the view that once a fetus has reached the point where it could live independently from the pregnant woman, the balance of rights perhaps swings in favour of the fetus. Some oppose most abortions but make exception for cases where the woman's life is in serious risk. In this category, some likewise make an exception for severe fetal deformities. Others make exceptions when the pregnancy was not caused by consensual sexual activity or may violate social taboos, as in cases of rape and incest. Some allow for all these exceptions, but stop short of abortion-on-demand.

Another issue is that of mandatory notification and consent. Some believe that a pregnant minor should not be allowed to abort her pregnancy without notifying her parent or guardian because of the risks and possible medical complications. Likewise, some believe that notifying the woman's husband should be required because of parental rights. In a 2003 Gallup poll in the United States, 72% of respondents were in favour of spousal notification, with 26% opposed; of those polled.^[30] In many states, such restrictions are mandated by law, though often with the right of judicial oversight. Others believe that the child's biological father must be notified.

Generally speaking, the pro-life position regards abortion as a form of infanticide, and thus seeks legal restrictions on abortions. Pro-life advocates typically argue that if a pregnant woman is unable or unwilling to raise the child, there is the option of placing the child up for adoption.

On the other hand, the counter-argument claims that pro-life families have fewer abortions (and more children) than their pro-choice counterparts, and they may pass their beliefs on to their children, thus changing the voter demographic of future generations. In this way, legal abortion-on-demand may also serve to increase the dominance of the pro-life position in society. This latter hypothesis has been called the "Roe effect," and may explain the trend towards more widespread support of the pro-life movement. However, these scenarios are not concurrent with the fact that abortion rates are high in states which traditionally elect pro-life legislators, and low in states which traditionally elect pro-choice legislators.^[31] Furthermore, polls conducted by the Guttmacher Institute have shown that women from religious denominations that are pro-life are as likely to have abortions as women who are not.^[32]

Public opinion regarding abortion in the United States of America is difficult to measure; poll results vary and appear to be highly dependent upon the exact phrasing of the question. Two polls were released in May 2007 asking Americans "With respect to the abortion issue, would you consider yourself to be pro-choice or pro-life?" May 4 through 6th, a CNN poll found 45% said pro-choice and 50% said pro-life.^[33] Right-to-lifers hailed this poll as evidence that the American majority had shifted to right-to-lifism for the first time in several decades; however, the following week, a Gallup poll found 49% responding pro-choice and 45% pro-life.^[34]

Legal and political aspects

Democrats for Life of America demonstrates at the 2006 March for Life.

The U.S. Republican Party platform advocates a pro-life position,^[35] though some Republicans are not pro-life. The Republican group The Wish List supports pro-choice Republican women just as EMILY's List supports pro-choice Democratic women. The Susan B. Anthony List is dedicated to "increasing the percentage of pro-life women in Congress and high public office."^[36] The Democrats for Life of America are a group of pro-life Democrats on the political left who advocate for a pro-life plank in the Democratic Party's platform and for pro-life Democratic candidates. The former vice-presidential candidate Sargent Shriver and the late Robert Casey, a former two term governor of Pennsylvania, are among the most well-known pro-life Democrats. His son, Bob Casey, Jr. is now one of the four pro-life Democratic US Senators.

In many nations, such as Canada, the nations of Europe, Australia, the nations of Asia and Africa, and the U.S. there are many on the economic left-wing and political centre who either have personal disagreements with abortion or who oppose legal abortions outright. Both groups generally consider themselves pro-life.

Term controversy

Pro-life and pro-choice individuals often use political framing to convey their perspective on the issues and, in some cases, to discredit opposing views. Pro-life advocates tend to use terms such as "unborn baby", "unborn child", or "pre-born child",^[37][38] while some pro-choice advocates insist on scientific terminology (distinguishing between a zygote, a blastula, an embryo, and a fetus, and objecting to "fetus" as a blanket term). Pro-life individuals may also refer to the pregnant woman as a "mother", while pro-choice individuals and some in the medical community ^[39] may see this usage as premature and emotional.

Both "pro-choice" and "pro-life" are examples of terms labeled as political framing: they are terms which purposely try to define their philosophies in the best possible light, while by definition attempting to describe their opposition in the worst possible light. "Pro-choice" focuses on the fact that the alternative viewpoint, on this issue, is "anti-choice", while "pro-life" implies the alternative viewpoint is "pro-death" or "anti-life". Similarly each side's use of the term "rights" ("reproductive rights", "right to life of the unborn") implies a validity in their stance, given that the presumption in language is that rights are inherently a good thing and so implies an invalidity in the viewpoint of their opponents.

The Associated Press encourages journalists to use the terms "abortion rights" and "anti-abortion".^[40]

Activism

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Pro-life activism involves a variety of activities, from promoting the pro-life position to the public in general, lobbying public officials, or reaching individuals - for example by attempting to dissuade individual women to forgo abortions. Some efforts involve distributing literature, providing counseling services, conducting public demonstrations or protests and private or public prayer.

Types of activism

Pro-life protesters make a silent demonstration in front of the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

• Free ultrasound: One type of pro-life activism is giving free ultrasound scans to pregnant women who are considering an abortion. These usually take place at a crisis pregnancy center. The theory behind this practice is the belief that the pregnant woman will decide to carry to term once she views images of the fetus. In the US, under the Bush administration, federal funding was provided for many crisis pregnancy centers.^[41][42] Because these centers do not charge a fee, nor operate under a professional licence, they have no legal obligation to tell the truth. If one of them shows a patient a fake ultrasonogram, or lies about what it means, the patient has no legal recourse; the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States protects the right-to-lifer's right to say anything he wants to say (within the ordinary limits of protected free speech).

• The life chain: The "Life Chain" is a public demonstration technique that involves simply standing in a row on sidewalks holding signs with pro-life messages. Historically, the most often used message has been "Abortion Kills Children" but other signs have been produced for use by Life Chainers that include, "Abortion stops a beating heart", "Abortion Hurts Women", "I'm a child, not a choice", "God Heal Our Land", "God Bless America", "Jesus Forgives and Heals", "Jesus Loves the Little Children" and "Jesus Loves You." Life Chainers, as an official policy, do not yell or chant slogans and do not block pedestrians or roadways. This type of demonstration is extremely common, but some pro-life demonstrators question the effectiveness of this tactic. Many Right to Life chapters hold Life Chain events yearly,^[43] and the annual worldwide 40 Days for Life campaigns are another example of this technique.

• The rescue: A "rescue operation" involves pro-life activists blocking the entrances to an abortion clinic in order to prevent anyone from entering. The stated goal of this practice is to force the clinic to shut down for the day. Often, the protesters are removed by law enforcement. Some clinics were protested so heavily in this fashion that they closed down permanently. "The rescue" was first attempted by Operation Rescue. Ever since President Bill Clinton signed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act into law, the rescue has become prohibitively expensive, and has rarely been attempted.

A pro-life van parked outside of an abortion clinic.

• The truth display: In a "truth display", protesters go to an area intending to display highly-magnified pictures of aborted fetuses. Though this sparks anger and controversy, some pro-life groups believe this is the most effective way of explaining their position. The members of one group based in Riverside, California, known as Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, have been jailed numerous times for these types of displays which they set up both legally and illegally on university campuses. Pro-Life Action League's Face the Truth displays are another example of a "truth display". A point of disagreement among pro-lifers is whether displaying shock pictures is really necessary.^[44] Though many believe in the truthfulness of "truth displays", many feel that it is sufficient to display informative images of perfectly healthy fetuses in order to demonstrate their humanity, not their suffering. Proponents of these "shock tactics" argue that, unless people realize the precise nature of abortion methods/procedures and their tangible results, the pro-life position can never succeed.

• Sidewalk counseling: "Sidewalk counseling" is a form of pro-life activism which is conducted outside of abortion clinics. Activists seek to communicate with those entering the building, or with passersby in general, in an effort to persuade them not to have an abortion or to reconsider their position on the morality of abortion.^[45] They do so by trying to engage in conversation, displaying signs, distributing literature, or giving directions to a nearby crisis pregnancy center.^[45] The "Chicago Method" is an approach to sidewalk counseling that involves giving those about to enter an abortion facility copies of lawsuits filed against the facility or its physicians. The name comes from the fact that it was first used by Pro-Life Action League in Chicago.^[46] The intent of the Chicago Method is to turn the woman away from a facility that the protesters deem "unsafe", thus giving her time to reconsider her choice to abort.^[47]

• Picketing: The majority of the facilities that perform abortions in the United States experience some form of protest from pro-life demonstrators every year, of which the most common form is picketing. Besides the clinics themselves, other sites for right-to-life picketing include abortion workers' homes, churches, and second-job workplaces, and abortion workers' children's schools.^[48] Most facilities that perform abortions experience picketing at least 20 times a year;^[48] in 2007, 11,113 incidents of picketing were either reported to, or obtained by, the National Abortion Federation.^[49]

Prominent pro-life activists

Secular writers

Some pro-life people hold no religious convictions, and rely upon non-religious sources to base their arguments. One of the more prominent secular pro-life advocates is Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice.

Politicians

Some of those who are religious have used non-religious justifications when making public policy arguments, including some prominent pro-life politicians (for example, U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan^[50] and George W. Bush,^[51] and U.S. Senators Sam Brownback,^[52] Bob Casey,^{[citation needed]} and Harry Reid^{[citation needed]}).

Other Leaders

• David Reardon, Elliot Institute
• Richard Land, Southern Baptist Convention
• Wanda Franz, National Right to Life Committee
• Priscilla Coleman^[53]
• Joel Brind^[53]
• Vincent Rue^[53]
• James Dobson, Focus on the Family

Violence against abortion providers

Violent incidents directed against abortion providers range from the murders and attempted murders of physicians and clinic staff to arson and bombings of abortion clinics, to ordinary fisticuffs. G. Davidson Smith of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) defined abortion extremist, animal rights, and environmentalism-related violence as "single issue terrorism".^[54] Actual acts of violence against abortion providers and facilities in North America have largely subsided following a peak in the mid-1990s.^[55] The National Clinic Violence Survey, conducted by the pro-choice Feminist Majority Foundation, reports that severe violence now affects only 18.4% of abortion providers and facilities (2005PDF (80.4 KiB) figures), a figure lower than at any time since 1994. Statistics from the National Abortion Federation show that violence against abortion clinics or providers has decreased steadily since a peak in 2001.^[49]

In North America, the most recent act of violence against an abortion provider that resulted in bodily injury was in Wichita, Kansas on May 31, 2009, when Dr. George Tiller was shot point-blank through the eye in the foyer of the church where he was a member of the congregation;^[56] pro-life leaders and groups condemned the killing.^[57][58][59]

The vast majority of pro-life advocates, as well as virtually all mainstream pro-life organizations, reject the use of extra-legal violence in support of pro-life goals and/or in opposition to abortion,^[60] on the basis of the belief that both qualify as murder. They rely upon other forms of activism like picketing and vigils, as well as legal and political action. The National Right to Life Committee, the largest pro-life organization in the United States, has stated that it "unequivocally condemns any acts of violence used by individuals regardless of their motivation".^[61] The American Life League has issued a "Pro-life Proclamation Against Violence".^[62] Other right-to-lifist organizations, such as Operation Rescue, pursue an intermediate path, not committing, but inciting and enabling, violent crimes against abortion workers, by publishing private, personal information, and publically praying for abortion workers to be "executed".^[63]

Some pro-choice critics of the anti-abortion movement argue that extreme criminal violence is a direct and logical outgrowth of the language, tactics, and arguments used by abortion opponents.^[64]

References

External links

Look up pro-life movement in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pro-life movement

The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (November 2009)

• National Right to Life
• Abort73.com (Online Abortion Education)
• Feminists for Life
• LifeNews.com (Pro-Life News Source)