The ‘Choice’ Facade

By Michael Spielman

Since abortion is impossible to justify on its merits (it kills a living human being, remember), ‘choice’ has become the foundation of its political justification. Abortion advocates don’t want to talk about facts or science, but they love to talk about ‘choice.’ “This is America...We’re free to choose...You can’t legislate morality!” Nothing has so clouded and confused the politics of this debate more than the misconstrued application of this one little term. The bottom line is this: ‘Choice’ is nothing apart from the context to which it is applied. Individual choices are either recognized or restricted based upon the circumstances at hand. That’s how our laws work. You simply cannot talk about choice in isolation.

For over 35 years, however, abortion advocates have sought to bestow upon ‘choice’ a nobility all its own, a nobility it has no claim to. They refuse to be called “pro-abortion,” but they gladly accept the label “pro-choice” (despite the fact that there are countless other issues for which they are decidedly not ‘pro-choice’).

The fact is, laws against rape, murder, assault, theft, speeding, drunk-driving and even smoking are all ‘anti-choice.’ They take away legal protection from one particular choice in order to protect a more foundational freedom. All such laws are ‘legislating morality.’ That’s the only way society can survive. Personal choices that infringe on the life or livelihood of another human being must be legislated against. Therefore, anyone who defends legal abortion by simply arguing that people must be free to make their own choices is either ignorant or dishonest.

Furthermore, in almost 99% of all U.S. abortions (1), the woman having the abortion chose to have sexual intercourse in the first place. Therefore, it could just as easily be argued that these women already made their choice when they chose to engage in behavior that often leads to pregnancy. Ultimately, restricting a woman’s right to abortion does not restrict a woman’s right to not be pregnant. Abortion, after all, does not keep a woman from being pregnant. Abstinence does that. Abortion simply ends the pregnancy of an already pregnant woman by killing the embryo or fetus living within her.

In the end, we are only free to choose so long as that choice doesn’t kill or harm someone else, and our government exists to take away those choices that do. Nobody argues that a man should be free to choose when the context is sexual assault. What a fool he would be to try and justify rape by saying, “My body, my choice.” Why? Because rape is a violent assault which involves more than just one body. And so is abortion.

The heart of the issue is not ‘choice.’ The real question is humanity, and nothing short of anarchy can guarantee the perfect freedom of choice.

Foot Note

(1) Just over 1% of all abortions in the United States happen as a result of rape: Torres A and Forrest JD, Why do women have abortions? Family Planning Perspectives, 1988, 24(4):169-176.

Michael Spielman is the Director of Loxafamosity Ministries which operates the website www.Abort73.com. This article is from that website.

Loxafamosity Ministries believes that ‘secular’ arguments are invaluable and even sufficient to demonstrate that abortion is an injustice of historic proportions, one which systematically destroys the most innocent and helpless members of the human race. You needn’t believe in God to oppose abortion. Anyone who cares about human rights, and understands that the right not to be killed outweighs the right not to be pregnant, cannot support abortion. Loxafamosity is anchored on the infallible Word of God, believing that the Bible is sufficient and authoritative for all matters of faith, life, and godliness.