We’ve probably all heard the repulsive details that have come to light during the trial of Kermit Gosnell, the abortion doctor on trial for murder.
The internet is not in short supply of articles about the case and the abortion debate as a whole. I don’t usually read articles from pro-life news sources like LifeNews.com, not because I don’t agree with what is said, but because of the general hypocrisy inherent in most pro-life publications. However, I was struck by the title and content of this article from LN, “Why Grisly Abortion Practitioner Kermit Gosnell Should be Acquitted.”
It’s a great set up for one of pro-lifers strongest arguments: Why are these acts found SO hideous, SO egregious and deserving of murder charges when they take place outside of the womb, yet, acceptable and permissible when conducted inside the womb?
The logic being -why should we single out this abortion doctor for doing outside the womb, what is done everyday around the country inside the womb.
I agree with this argument. In fact, I think it’s very astute.
However, while pointing out the hypocrisy of abortion advocates, it further points out the pro-life communities own hypocrisy.
The pro-life community rarely shows concern for life outside of the womb; the life on foreign soil, the life of the orphan, and the life of the single mother.
This hypocrisy is further highlighted when the majority of the pro-life messages on twitter are capped with the hashtag “tcot,” short hand for “Top Conservatives On Twitter,” sending the message that if you’re pro-life but on the other side of the aisle then your isolated, we’re not on the same team, I’m more interested in this political philosophy than a consistently advocating for the sanctity of life.
Dear pro-life community, you’re not taken seriously, because you have shown that you don’t even believe in the sanctity of life.
I’ve written a more exhaustive post on this issue in the past. You can read it here: Roe V Wade, Abortion & A Hypocritical Pro-Life Movement.
Great post! Just a half hour ago, I tried super hard to figure out what “#tcot” means, so it’s serendipitous that I’d read this shortly after.
I haven’t posted a whole lot on abortion, but this is my favorite of the few I’ve written: http://www.arleenspenceley.com/2012/09/texting-abortion-and-band-aids.html. Pretty much sums up my thoughts!
@arleenspenceley Yeah I had to google “tcot” the first time I came across it. Great blog post, and I love the texting & driving analogy.
I would have had to google #tcot as well, and I have been very active working to help people value life and not choose abortion for 7 years. In fact, maybe that helps my point, which is that like many peices designed to convict and compell, your’s here is over-generalized. Not everyone who is “pro-life” is only about political gain and overturning Roe v Wade. I thought I would reproduce this week’sprayer list of the clinic I work with below (the names were already changed before the prayer list was sent out.) Easy to see how the whole person/ whole family is cared for here!:
-Please pray for Cassidy. She is here now and is experiencing a miscarriage. She had another child who passed away suddenly in the fall. Pray for comfort for this woman who has suffered so much.
– Pray for Miriam. She has had three abortions and suffered emotionally because of them but doesn’t see any other alternative. Praise for Danielle! She was abortion minded when she first came in six years ago. She changed her mind and God changed her heart! Now she has a five year old child, is active in church and has graduated from school!
– Pray for Olive. She is carrying twins and is still not sure what she will do about the pregnancy.
– Praise for Abby’s decision to carry her baby! Everyone in the family is excited!
Those who are wondering how they can have a Kingdom-focused ministry to women who have had or are considering an abortion, look into your local pregancy clinic. If I get a chance I am going to post similar comments on Rachel Held Evans’ blog since I saw a somewhat similar post that seemed to reduce all “pro-life” to political posturing.
thanks for reading!
Judy, Thank you so much for reading this post. It sounds to me like you are a part of the solution. I’m not reducing all “pro-life” to political posturing and if I didn’t make it clear in the post, I am myself pro-life. My point is not even that using political means is wrong, in fact I’m for that too. My point is that pro-life has to mean more than anti-abortion and has to value life from womb to tomb.
I am so thankful for what you are doing and I am praying for this work!
Shane, thank you for your kind reply and especially, for your prayers!
i think that gosnell should be found guilty for his crimes and have some kind of serious punishment (imprisonment, etc) but i don’t think he should be put to death. im not republican or a part of any particular party, but i do subscribe to ‘rnclife.org’ (republicans national coalition for life) newsletter to keep up to date on news, needs and prayer requests. ive never read anything about them advocating giving him the death penalty, but maybe ive missed something? im not a very political person, but i am trying to get more involved by writing letters and being a pro life voice when bills come up about late term abortions, quality of clinics, etc. there is a lot that needs to change for the babies’ and women’s lives that wont happen unless pro lifers speak up and beg for reform. i think there are many ‘pro-lifers’ who also care about the foreigner, orphan, single mom, and widow who are and aren’t republican. you can look at the ‘majority’ of most political associations, groups of people, demographics, etc and say ‘they are all mostly this way’ or ‘that way’ and put a generalizing negative judgement on them, but we know there are so many people getting swept up in those generalizations that are different. its not fair to generalize in that way and put those labels on. like ‘pro lifers are hypocrites and dont care about life outside the womb.’ that’s seeing the glass half empty, and it is a lie that isn’t helping but only spreading more negative stereotypes to the world that christians are hypocritical, backward, politically crazed losers. id like to think you and i and many of our friends included are of the exception (although with my heart laid bare before Jesus, we are all truly hypocrites and sinners in one way or another!) i think a lot of young people today, christian or not, are afraid of caring about the unborn because of these stigmas, so we remain silent and ineffective. but there is hope of a people of God worldwide who DO care, who are speaking up for all the outcasts, yes there is definitely a place for rebuking each other in our sins, but i also think you could do a better job of encouraging and shedding light on people who do care and are taking action.
Kay,
I don’t haven’t heard anyone proposing the death penalty either, I’m not sure if that’s the point of original article.
By the responses I’m getting from this post it’s possible that I haven’t made it clear enough that I myself am pro-life. I think you are right, there are many pro-lifers who care about the foreigner, orphan, single moms and widows. At the same time it is overwhelmingly true that the pro-life movement is solely concerned with abortion. It’s probably important to make a distinction between people who consider themselves pro-life and the Pro-Life movement itself. There are Pro-Life non-profits, websites (like the one I mentioned in the post), think tanks, and other organizations, and they exist solely to combat abortion, not to address any other life issue. Again I am very anti-abortion, in fact I believe it in so much that I want the pro-life message to be heard, but it is falling on deaf ears because so many in that crowd do not speak out against other life issues and are against those life issues. It’s dishonest to speak out against abortion and not speak out against rushing to war for instance, and people see that. So you are right that all pro-lifers are not hypocrites, but the movement is inherently hypocritical because those in charge of only mean “anti-abortion” when they say “pro-life.”
You are right that encouraging, and shedding light on people who do care is important, but that’s exactly what these websites like lifenews.org and countless others do, there’s a whole industry dedicated to that.
I firmly believe that what is needed now is a group of people FROM WITHIN the movement to stand up and say “Hey, we’re doing this wrong! We can do better.”
You’ve raised an interesting points about how some pro-life advocates are indeed careless about life outside the womb. I shall ponder more on that kind of hypocrisy.
Your pro-life brother from Africa.
PS: Sanctity of life from WOMB to TOMB.