In recent months as debate about abortion continued to boil over in expectation of the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Colson Center for Christian Worldview and Focus on the Family addressed various claims abortion-rights supporters make and how pro-life advocates should respond in a post-Roe world.
Stephanie Gray Connors, a pro-life apologist, was one of four who spoke at a recent seminar presented by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview and Focus on the Family titled, “Preparing for a Post-Roe World.”
More than a debate
Connors said pro-life advocates should not seek to “just win an argument, but win the very people we’re arguing with.”
The first false claim she addressed during the seminar is that “embryos aren’t people.”
Abortion-rights groups say people are “rational, conscious and self-aware,” and an embryo “at the beginning of pregnancy might be human, but it’s not those things.” Connors referenced her own 9-month old, saying she is not “rational, conscious and self-aware” because of her age, but she does have that capacity. And the same is true for human embryos.
“Are human rights grounded in how old we are, how developed we are or who we are as members of the human family?” Connors asked.
Another false claim Connors highlighted is that “women have a right to an abortion because the Constitution provides a right to liberty.”
She related an example of someone waving a hand in front of a person’s face. It’s annoying but liberty allows it.
However, if one hits another in the face with the same movement, it’s no longer liberty.
“Your right to liberty does not give you the right to use your body to inflict harm on someone else’s body,” Connors explained.
She also addressed the claim that “abortion is health care.” Some, she noted, describe it as the treatment and prevention of disease or maintaining or restoring health.
“Pregnancy isn’t a disease,” Connors said.
‘Not the end of our responsibility’
Before the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was handed down June 24, Colson Center President John Stonestreet emphasized during the seminar how pro-life supporters should respond.
“It is not the end of legal abortion in America, and it’s certainly not the end of our responsibility to defend and protect the vulnerable, preborn humans that for the last several decades have been at such grave risk,” he noted.
“All of us need to take seriously where we fit in this cause to defend precious pre-born lives in a culture of death. It will look different … but the call is still there for all of us.”
