Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Abortion issue is a long way from settled

I was surprised to read this letter from the Guelph Mercury. I was surprised that it was even published. Don't they have editors over there to screen such hateful letters? And the irony is, that the letter writer uses the word hate five times, yet not one use is warranted, or even makes any sense.
"The abortion issue was decided in the 1970s."
Well no, it wasn't. In a democracy issues aren't "decided". If they were decided, it wouldn't be a democracy.
"...these right-to-life ads on city buses are...offensive". 
How are these ads offensive? The writer doesn't tell us, we must simply take his word for it. Here they are again in case you haven't seen them. You can decide for yourself.

"It's hate literature, saying basically we hate you because you are killing people."
So what part of: "Simply human. I'm not a potential person I'm a person with potential." And, "This is a child. Not a choice." says "we hate you"? I can't read hate into the signs and neither can the letter writer. He's making that up.
"You are terrorizing a vulnerable minority of our population with your ads because of your religious belief."
Terrorizing? Hamas terrorizes people. Al Qaeda terrorizes people. Pro-life people do not terrorize people. And there is no religion raised in the ad at all. Some pro-life people are religious, some have no religion and some are atheists. Remember Christopher Hitchens? He was a rabid atheist and pro-life. And I can never understand it, when people conclude that pro-life people are religious, and use that specious "argument" to try and justify their point of view.
"Stop it. You don't have that right."
Yes we do. It's called free speech. In Canada this is a constitutional right.
"Abortion was decided a long time ago by the majority." 
Abortion is not decided as long as people say it's not decided. Full stop.
"When abortion is legal, the crime rate drops quite noticeably."
Wrong. Read this: Did Steven Levitt, author of “Freakonomics”, get his most notorious paper wrong from the Economist.
"Every child should be a wanted child." 
What about "unwanted" toddlers. Or "unwanted" teenagers. Should we get rid of them too?
"You aren't alive until you can breathe on your own." 
You are alive at conception. You are growing. You are not dead.
"I bet you hate me".
I don't hate you. I feel sorry for you. I really, really do.

1 comment:

  1. When people resort to these attacks in the pro-life issue, you can bet that there is an abortion somewhere lurking behind their words. And to drown out any stirrings from their conscience, they have to shout statements that are ad hominem attacks and they feel no need for truth. They just have to shout down the issue, because it is so threatening to them.

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