Response to the Liberal Media Charge That Pro-lifers Do Not Believe Abortion is Murder

Right to Life groups gather every week to pray at an abortion clinic somewhere in America for the purpose of saving the life of pre-born babies. Pro-lifers refuse to support the many activities by the Susan G. Komen Foundation because of their unholy alliance with Planned Parenthood, America's largest abortion provider. Pro-life Ohioans ring the phones off the hook over pro-life legislation at statehouses constantly. Why? Because they believe that the killing of a child, no matter his age, is murder.

Oh, do they really? There is a popular attack in the liberal media on pro-lifers questioning that claim. Much of the rhetoric of the pro-life community includes a statement akin to the following: Abortion removes one of the consequences of free sex. The argument in the liberal media then runs, that pro-lifers are not really against abortion because it is murder, but because they want to stop women from having sex.

This line of reasoning is reminiscent of the pastor who asks his friend, “is the music in your worship service contemporary or blended?” To which the friend replies, “neither, there is a tertia quid here.” There is a tertia quid for the pro-lifer here. Many pro-lifers believe that women, or men, should not have sex outside of marriage. Thus the argument that making abortion illegal would make couples think more before they engaged in illicit sex.

Just because pro-lifers believe that sex outside of marriage is evil, does not mean that they cannot believe that abortion is murder. There is a tertia quid, a third alternative. Pro-lifers actually believe that women and men should not have sex outside of marriage and that abortion is murder. There is nothing in the one that prohibits the belief in the other.

Yes, pro-lifers are opposed to abortion because they believe it to be tantamount to murder. And yes, many pro-lifers want women and men to quit engaging in premarital sex.