How to explain why abortion is wrong

MATTHEW PINTO

"I know abortion is wrong, but how can I tell others why it is wrong?"

There are two approaches you can take. The first is to try to persuade people using moral principles which we all generally accept. The second is to appeal to revelation. Begin your discussion with the idea that no one has the right to take the life of an innocent person. Then discuss how the baby is a separate human being, distinct from his or her mother. Point out how each child has its own unique genetic identity, gender, heartbeat, brain waves, eyes, hands, feet, etc.

Challenge the person with whom you are speaking to consider whether society is actually moving backward or forward when it permits its young to be killed as a solution to its problems. Acknowledge that women do have certain rights over their bodies just as men do, but that these rights (of both men and women) are limited when they affect the rights of others. Abortion directly involves the rights of at least two people: the mother and the preborn child.

You should discuss what God has revealed about human life. Mention that the Bible teaches children are a gift from God and that God knows each child from his or her first moment in the womb (Jer. 1:5, Is. 41:2, 44:24, CCC 2270). Then ask, "Do you think God is pleased that His precious gifts are being brutally killed in the supposedly safest place on earth — the mother's womb?"

If people tell you not to bring religion into it, mention that everything is ultimately a religious issue. God's law exists. You did not make it up. You are just telling them what the law is (Ex. 20:13).

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Matthew Pinto "How to explain why abortion is wrong." Apologetics: "Question of the Week" Ascension Press.

Reprinted with permission of Matthew Pinto and Ascension Press.

THE AUTHOR

Matthew Pinto is a co-founder of CatholicExchange.com, a premiere Internet portal for Catholics. He is also a co-founder and former president of Envoy Magazine, which received the 1st Place award for General Interest Catholic magazines in 1998 and 1999 from the Catholic Press Association. The co-author of Amazing Grace for Those Who Suffer (Ascension Press, 2002) and Did Adam and Eve have Belly Buttons? and 199 other questions from Catholic Teenagers (Ascension Press, 1998) and creator and co-author of the Friendly Defenders Catholic Flash Cards, Matt is a well-known speaker whose work has focused primarily on youth and young adults.

Copyright © 2003 Ascension Press



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