Responding to Bumper Sticker Arguments for Abortion

Opinion   |   Jennie Stone   |   Jan 16, 2012   |   8:14PM   |   Washington, DC

Recently, Live Action bloggers Kristen Walker and Kristi Burton Brown delved into a few common and misleading pro-abortion rights arguments and phrases. We hear vapid slogans from these activists all the time, so how are we to respond to these bumper-sticker lines?

Just a few examples I recall encountering:

“Never going back!” (typically accompanied with a photo of a coat hanger)

The abortion movement has intentionally misinformed people about the number of deaths due to illegal abortions. They say thousands of women died each year from illegal abortions and this would reoccur if it were made illegal, but one of the founders of NARAL, a former abortionist and clinic owner, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, stated that in order to push a legal-abortion agenda, they would “[fabricate] the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U.S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000 but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was 1,000,000. Repeating the big lie often enough convinces the public. The number of women dying from illegal abortions was around 200-250 annually. The figure we constantly fed to the media was 10,000.”

It is horrible for even one woman to die this way. But, it is not an excuse to keep abortion legal. We wouldn’t make robbery legal in order to make sure that a robber isn’t hurt during a robbery.

Pro-life activists do not do abortions. If we somehow made abortion illegal right now, and illegal abortionists came about in the next few days, each one of them would be pro-choice. Any woman that ever died or was hurt during an abortion, legal or not, it was because of someone who was pro-choice. Something for abortion-rights activists to ponder.

Further, as this slogan refers to illegal and “back-alley” abortions, I wonder if they would become angry about pro-choice groups that promote and advocate illegal and secret abortions already.

“Keep your rosaries off my ovaries.”

This futile attempt to be clever makes abortion rights activists look more ridiculous. I am not the least bit concerned about your ovaries, nor will I put a rosary on them, I promise.

Not all pro-lifers are religious, but one doesn’t have to be to know that killing a defenseless human being is wrong. Simply because many pro-lifers are motivated by religious beliefs doesn’t mean abortion a religious issue. If we start rejecting laws just because they are supported by religion, since that there is hardly anything illegal which is not also prohibited by most religious scriptures, then we will have get rid of all of our laws.

I’d also direct pro-choicers who succumb to the notion that all pro-lifers are a bunch of crazy Christians to groups like the Atheist/Agnostic Pro-Life League and Secular Pro-Life. With that, I’d check this one off the “debunked” list.

“My body, my choice.”

I’ll just go ahead and say it: I agree with this statement. It is entirely up to a person, man or woman, to decide what they can do with their own body, so long as no one else’s rights are being violated. And this one-liner would hold water if and only if abortion didn’t involve the body of a completely separate and unique human being who will die a violent and painful death during the process of that so-called ‘choice.’ Your body, your choice; baby’s body, baby’s choice.

“Don’t like abortion? Don’t have one.”

When someone resorts to this statement, it becomes quite apparent they cannot actually defend their stance on abortion. This is the logical equivalent of “Don’t like rape? Don’t rape!” “Don’t like child molestation? Don’t molest a child!” “Don’t like slavery? Don’t own a slave!” …But don’t you dare tell me what I can and can’t do. These statements are as ludicrous as the first.

“Freedom to choose.”

I remember a conversation I had on my campus while passing out fliers on fetal development to fellow students. Upon reading my pro-life shirt, someone said “no thanks, I support a woman’s freedom to choose,” and started to quickly walk away. I asked, “freedom to choose what?” To my surprise, he stopped and talked.

“To choose abortion if she wants one.”
“What exactly is an abortion?”
“It’s a termination of a pregnancy.”
“What does it mean when a woman is pregnant?”
“It means there’s a fetus in her uterus.”
“What is a fetus?”
“Something that will become a baby someday.”

At that point, I offered him a second time the flier about fetal development, and this time, he took it. This argument paves the perfect road to discussion about the humanity of the unborn, and that’s exactly what it did in this conversation. Long story short, it ended with “I guess I never really thought much about it, because I’m a guy.”

This is why pro-choice activists often make broad, ambiguous like this one: when we actually stop and think about what “freedom to choose” truly means, it’s a horrific reality to face.


“May the fetus you save be gay.”

This slogan tells us two things: one, my pro-life work will save lives, and two, pro-choice activists assume that all pro-lifers hate gays and would be appalled to learn that babies they saved would grow up to be homosexuals and therefore it would have been better if they hadn’t been saved.

Of all the pro-abortion rights slogans I’ve heard, this one is probably one of the most offensive because of what it implies. I have no problem with homosexuals whatsoever. I’m willing to work with anyone and everyone who wants to peacefully bring an end to abortion and assist pregnant women and their families, regardless of their religion, sexual orientation, or political ideologies. If I were to somehow know that a baby I were to save would grow up to be a liberal, gay, atheist, or all three, or anything else for that matter, I would fight just as hard for his or her right to live, because all human beings merit the right to life. Period.

I’d also invite them to look into PLAGAL.

“77% of anti-abortion leaders are men. 100% will never be pregnant.”

Hilarious. I’ll just say this: I single handedly run and monitor a group on Facebook with over 188,000 members. 69% of these members are female. I’m an officer of the Pro-Life Aggies at Texas A&M, and eight of our nine officers are women. When I think “anti-abortion leaders,” I certainly don’t think of congressmen. I think of pro-life women like Abby Johnson, Lila Rose, Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life, Marjorie Dannenfelser and other SBA List members, Concerned Women for America, Alveda King (niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) and abortion survivors like Melissa Ohden and Gianna Jessen—women who understand that our dignity and rights do not hinge on the broken bodies of our unborn children.

LifeNews.com Note: Jennie Stone writes for the Live Action blog and this column is reprinted with permission.