Prolife as a Concept — In-Depth:

The Prolife stance supports the right of every individual to live their life from conception to natural death. Their are no acceptable distinctions to this rule. In support of this, anti-abortionists often cite several common arguments.

The Arguments for Life

• The Cost of Abortions In terms of the economy, abortion undermines future growth. Studies show abortions to be an economic disaster. For example, several studies calculate that for every American who is aborted, it costs the economy (in mid 1990s dollars) $1,500,000.00. This is based on an estimate that the average American spends over $1,177,000.00 in his or her lifetime for housing, medicine, clothes, transportation, and so on, and he or she also pays over $440,000.00 in taxes in his or her lifetime. This comes to a grand total of $1,617,000.00. In following this line of reasoning, the doctor may get $300 for murdering a baby which immediately helps the abortion industry, however, there are other industries that will be adversely affected downstream. Ultimately, the cost to America alone for aborted babies and the subsequent loss of productive citizens is well over $41 trillion. Imagine the impact worldwide!
• Backstreet Abortions Increase Speaking before the 93rd Congress of the United States, Senator James Buckley stated: "Data from foreign countries having far longer experience with legalized abortion than we have had in the U.S., suggests that legalization has no effect on the criminal abortion rate. In at least three countries, the criminal abortion rate has actually risen since legalization. Legalized abortion moves the back alley abortionists into the front office where their trade can be practised without fear of criminal prosecution."
  
  Doctor Christopher Tietze, an abortion advocate, concedes: "Although one of the major goals of the liberalization of abortion laws in Scandinavia was to reduce the incidence of illegal abortion, this was not accomplished. Rather as we know from a variety of sources, both criminal and total abortions increased."
  
  In various surveys 40-85% of the women who responded said they would not have aborted their babies if it had been illegal.
• Abortion and Slavery Historically, in the United States of America, slavery and abortion have been defended and promoted by the same arguments.
  
  In 1857, in the United States of America, in the Dred Scott case, the U.S. Supreme Court decided, by a 7 to 2 majority, that according to the U.S. Constitution, black people were not legal persons. They were the property of the owner. He could buy, sell, or even kill them. Abolitionists objected and called the ruling outrageous, immoral, and discriminative against an entire class of living persons solely on the basis of their skin color. On the other side, those who supported slavery argued that those who had a moral objection to slavery didn't have to own slaves; no one was forcing them to own slaves. They also said, "Don't force your morality on the slave owner. He has the right to choose to own slaves if he wishes."
  
  In 1973, in the United States of America, in the Roe v. Wade Decision, the U.S. Supreme Court decided, by the same 7 to 2 majority, that according to the U.S. Constitution, unborn people were not legal persons. They had no civil rights, no human rights and were therefore, legally the property of the owner (the mother). She had the absolute legal right to keep or destroy her unborn baby. Prolife people objected. The ruling was outrageous, immoral, and discriminative against an entire class of living people solely on the basis of age (too young) and place of residence (the womb). On the other side, those who supported abortion argued that those who have a moral objection to abortion, don't have to have abortions. The pro-abortionists say: "No one is forcing you to have an abortion. But don't force your morality on the mother. She has a right to choose to kill her developing baby if she wishes."
  
  Abraham Lincoln said: "No one has the right to do what is wrong."
  
  Discrimination based on race is wrong. Discrimination based on age is wrong. Subjugation and/or annihilation of the weak is wrong. Saying:"I'm older than you, I'm bigger than you, I have a voice — therefore I can kill you," is wrong.
• Indisputable Medical Evidence — the Unborn Baby is a Human Being The Official Senate report on Senate Bill 158, the "Human Life Bill," summarized the issue of the beginning of an individual human life in this way: "Physicians, biologists, and other scientists agree that conception marks the beginning of the life of a human being – a being that is alive and a member of the human species. There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological, and scientific writings."
  
  The individuality and originality of a person is established at conception; the first, single cell contains the entire genetic blueprint in all its complexity. From conception, the new person conceived is as deserving of the full protection of the law as any other person.
• Abortion Aggravates Child Abuse To the contrary, a study by Doctor Phillip Ney, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Christ Church, New Zealand, revealed that abortion (and its acceptance of the violence of killing the unborn) lowered a parent's psychic resistance to violence and abuse of the born.
  
  University of Southern California professor, Edward Lenoski, studied 674 abused children and discovered that 91% of them were from planned pregnancies and were definitely wanted by their parents. It is illogical to argue that a child is protected from abuse through abortion since abortion is the most horrific form of child abuse.
• Even Legal Abortions are Unsafe Many complications may arise from an abortion, including: Ectopic pregnancies, future premature births (often because of a cervix that was damaged during the previous abortion), subsequent infertility and miscarriages, Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (reported in up to 30% of all cases), small–for–dates babies and placenta praevia, which is 7–15 times more common among women who have had abortions than among those who have not. Abortions can also result in a perforated uterus that will necessitate an emergency hysterectomy. And while the reported immediate complication rate may be deceptively less than 10%, studies of long-term complications frequently report complication rates between 25-40%.
• Abortion Kills More Mothers The Maternal Death Rate from Abortion is almost 3 times higher than the Death Rate from Childbirth, according to a 13-year population study of pregnancy-associated deaths (as reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology). The study found that the mortality rate associated with abortion is 2.95 times that of the mortality rate associated with pregnancies carried to term. To put this another way: the maternal mortality rate associated with abortion is 195% higher than the maternal mortality rate associated with pregnancies carried to term.