WINNING THE WAR OF WORDS: Rebuttals to Abortion Arguments

Argument
Abortion is a matter of individual choice because no one can say with certainty when a fetus becomes a person.

Rebuttal
Basing support for abortion on a vague notion of "personhood" avoids the facts. We cannot decide this life and death issue using religious, moral or philosophical arguments; we must use unarguable facts. Because science proves human life begins at conception, abortion ends a human life and is clearly a violation of basic human rights.

Argument
Every woman has the right to control her own body. A fetus is part of a woman's body because it is dependent on her for survival in the womb.

Rebuttal
When we are talking about abortion there is more than one body involved. The unborn child is an individual, separate and distinct from the mother. From the time of conception the baby's genetic code is unique. The baby has his or her own blood type, heart, brain, and other organs and may have differently colored eyes, hair and complexion. Simply being dependent on others should not deprive a human being of fundamental rights.

Argument
The government shouldn't interfere in this highly personal issue.

Rebuttal
As Thomas Jefferson wrote: "The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of government." In modern society it is naive to suggest that government can be absent from this debate on human life. Laws regulate areas much less fundamental than the right to life. The real issue is whether the government will fulfill its responsibility to protect and preserve life or continue to allow this most basic right to be denied.

 

Back to Table of Contents