PRO-CHOICE VS. PRO-REGULATION: WHAT TERMS DESCRIBE THE CONFLICT AND WHAT ARE THE GROUNDS FOR THE DISCUSSION? :: Essays Papers

PRO-CHOICE VS. PRO-REGULATION: WHAT TERMS DESCRIBE THE CONFLICT AND WHAT ARE THE GROUNDS FOR THE DISCUSSION? Pro-life. Pro-choice. The two self-chosen terms for the respective sides of the struggle do not provide an equal playing field. Which side will a casual observer of the debate (especially a young one) identify with? There is, of course, no contest. No one wants to claim to be anti-life. The term â€Å"pro-life† shuts down discussion, pulling the issue out of a disagreement between two competing value systems by seizing the moral high ground. The name implies that there is only one life here, that of the fetus, and we are defending it. There is, of course, an equally compelling case to be made that the true pro-lifers are the ones who support the life of the female – the living being, rather than the potential one. Women will need abortions, legal or illegal, and if we once again outlaw them, many will once again die from unsafe procedures. That was the reality in the United States before Roe v. Wade. What about the lives of the children who grow up without a mother, their mothers having died from unsafe abortions? What about the cases where women will die if forced to carry a fetus to birth? In these cases, pro-life is clearly on the side of reproductive rights. â€Å"Pro-life† can as easily mean reproductive rights as it can mean anti-choice. However, if one side claims the pro-life position, it denies the moral legitimacy of the opposing position. The conflict of values is strikingly similar to that waged over the issue of slavery. Difficult as it may be today to imagine a moral case being made for slavery, that in fact was the moral position in the 1830’s. Similarly seizing the moral high ground, the pro-slavery advocates declared themselves to be on the side of God, the law and public opinion. Anti-slavery opponents were labeled Godless, man-stealing destroyers of the social order. Ministers of all denominations, North and South, justified slavery on the grounds that it was a God-given institution. Their proof was the Bible, as one Southern minister asserted: The same God who gave Abraham sunshine, air, rain earth, flocks, herds, silver and gold blessed him with a donative of slaves. Here we see God dealing in slaves, giving them to his favorite child, - a man of superlative worth, and as a reward for his eminent goodness.