What are the differences between the pro-life and pro-choice positions? Here is a brief summary of some of the main arguments.
|
The pro-life position |
The pro-choice position |
| The woman is given all the relevant infomration so she can make an informed decision. Support services are offerred. | The baby definitely has no choice. The mother is not told her options so she has no real choice |
| The baby’s life begins at conception | Disagreement as to when the baby’s life begins |
| The baby is not part of her body – male, own blood type, own unique genetic code, own fingerprints – no one has the right to take another person’s life | The woman has the right to do what she likes with her own body |
| The baby does feel pain – one month after conception he/she has a nervous system | The ‘baby’ doesn’t feel pain. By eight to ten weeks gestation, and definitely by thirteen and a half weeks, the unborn child experiences organic pain |
| Many elderly, handicapped or injured people are dependent on others – should they be killed? | The baby is dependent on his mother |
| Many babies are aborted at a later stage than many who survive premature births | The baby wouldn’t survive outside the womb |
| Women die every year having ‘safe and legal’ abortions – if it was illegal fewer women would seek abortions | If we ban abortions we will force woman to have backalley abortions – many will die |
| Resources are sufficient to feed the world’s population – there is a distribution problem | The world is over populated so abortion can assist in birth control |