Pro-Abortion Slogans

Sometimes it is good to know how to go against the average pro-abortion slogans. Like many groups they use the same slogans over and don’t really think about these or know how to respond when you come up with a reasonable response. Here are two to think about.

"You can't legislate morality!" Or: Keep your laws off my body.Summary of the Pro-Life Response.
(1) PARALLELISM: "Of course you can legislate morality! Why don't you name one law that does not legislate morality in some way?"
(2) PARALLELISM: "Do you believe that taxpayers should pay for abortions for poor women? You do? Why your morality on me by trying to force me to pay for abortions?"
(3) PARALLELISM: "Now wait a minute. Isn't it "legislating morality" to say that the law of the land is that human life begins at birth? Does this not impose a particular religious standard on when human life begins?"

"Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless."— Martin Luther King.
Ignoring Realities. Any person who uses this slogan is extremely naive about the realities of living in a society.
Of course people can legislate morality! We do it all the time! Legislating morality is the primary intent of every one of our hundreds of thousands of existing or proposed laws. The extensive legislating of morality is absolutely essential to the survival of any society.
The Purposes of This Slogan. What a person who uses the "legislating morality" slogan is really saying is this: "I don't want anyone or anything to interfere with the practice of my immorality!"
One purpose of this slogan — which is used by virtually all anti-life groups — is to try to cast abortion, euthanasia, pornography and other issues as Church/State conflicts. The slogan asserts that anyone who tries to outlaw some immoral act is doing so out of a purely religious motivation. Thus, such persons are trying to establish a religious belief as the law of the land, and such activity is (of course) blatantly unconstitutional.
The Christian Basis for Legislating Morality. In the United States, there are more than 250,000 laws and ordinances in force, representing more than 10,000 different local, city, county, state, and Federal jurisdictions. Every one of these quarter-million laws makes a moral judgement that certain behavior is not to be tolerated — from murder, espionage, and forcible rape to double-parking and running stop signs.
Most of our country's important laws are based on or derived from the Ten Commandments and Judeo-Christian tradition, and many of these directly legislate morality for the good of the individual and society.
As the United States Supreme Court majority declared in its McGowan v. Maryland decision, "Nearly every criminal law on the books can be traced to some religious principle."
A few examples;
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Laws against murder, manslaughter, negligent homicide, attempted suicide, mutilation of both living and dead persons, possession of unregistered firearms, drunkenness, drunken driving, reckless endangerment, kidnapping, and the sale and use of illegal or dangerous drugs.
• Thou Shalt Not Steal: Laws against robbery, fraud, shoplifting, stealing, larceny, theft, insider trading and embezzlement.
• Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness: Laws against libel, slander, and perjury (lying under oath).
Justice Potter Stewart's common-sense approach in McRae v. Matthews summed up the situation: "That the Judeo-Christian religions oppose stealing does not mean that a State or the Federal Government may not, consistent with the Establishment Clause, enact laws that prohibit larceny."
It is very interesting to watch the reaction of a pro-abortionist who has been challenged to name a single law that does not legislate morality to some extent!

Second Slogan "Don't foist your morality off on me!"
Summary of the Pro-Life Response.
(1) CLARIFICATION: "Of course I'm trying to foist my morality off on you! Isn't that the purpose of all public debate — to convince others of the validity of one's views?"
(2) PARALLELISM: "Aren't you trying to do the same thing, right here, right now, by defending the 'pro-choice' position?"
(3) CLARIFICATION: "What do you mean by that? Don't you really object to my mere presence here, defending the pro-life position?"
Background. Pro-lifers should not be offended by this slogan. Of course we're trying to "foist our morality" off on other people! Is this not the purpose of all activism, debate and public discourse — to convince others of the morality and correctness of one's views? If a pro-lifer is trying to foist his morality off on others, his pro-abortion debating opponent is equally guilty of trying to foist his [im]morality off on the pro-lifer!
This slogan is a scaled-down variant of ("You can't legislate morality!"). The difference is that the pro-abortionist is addressing an individual pro-lifer personally here, instead of criticizing pro-lifers or Christians in general.
Analysis of the Slogan. Of course, a pro-abortionist who uses this slogan is not really objecting to pro-lifers trying to "foist their morality" off on him, because that would imply some sort of coercion on the part of pro-lifers or cooperation on the part of the pro-abort, neither of which is likely to happen. What the pro-abortionist is really saying is that he objects to the pro-lifer's mere presence and his audacity in taking a stand for life. Nothing would please pro-abortionists more than to have the pro-life viewpoint outlawed entirely. When a pro-abortionist uses this slogan, he is basically telling pro-lifers to "shut up!" As William Barclay has said, "There is nothing that the world would like so much as a silent Church."
If a pro-abortionist uses this "last resort" slogan, the pro-lifer can be assured that he is winning the debate. He can answer it by using the process of clarification: "What do you mean by that?"