Atheist on Why She is Pro-Life: “We’re Not Dealing With Tissues or Blobs”

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 11, 2014   |   1:09PM   |   Washington, DC

Kelsey Hazzard is the head of the pro-life group known as Secular Pro-Life. She’s an anomaly — a pro-life atheist in a world where most pro-life people are staunch Catholics or evangelicals.

Anyone attending the March for Life in Washington D.C. has seen the religious overtones of the pro-life movement. Signs proclaim “God is pro-life,” marchers hold rosary beads and crosses, churches and church schools waive banners ahead of their dozens of adults and students who attend, and pro-life groups affiliated with churches like the Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian or Baptist Churches make their presence known.

kelseyhazzardBut the fact that Hazzard doesn’t believe in God doesn’t diminish the authenticity of her pro-life position nor the passion behind it. She recently described her feelings on the issue to students at the University of Georgia and how she operates as a non-Christian pro-lifer in a Christian pro-life community.

From the story:

Ex-abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson made a famous confession in the 1970s about abortion. He believed abortion was legalized by using the “Catholic card” and “[picking] on the Catholic hierarchy as the villain in opposing abortion.”

Kelsey Hazzard said she strives to mitigate this association of religion and pro-life beliefs by taking a secular position on why she believes abortion is wrong.

Hazzard, who founded Secular Pro-Life, shared her “Pro-life without God” presentation Thursday in the Zell B. Miller Learning Center to a full room of about 80 students and faculty.

After showing pictures of what the fetus looks like at each stage of the pregnancy, she showed a picture of the embryonic stage of the pregnancy at nine weeks. She said this stage is when most abortions occur with an estimated 2,052 performed each day in the United States.

“So it’s clear we are not dealing with tissue or blobs,” said Hazzard, who is also a lawyer. “We are dealing with humans. But that doesn’t necessarily settle the issue. We then have to determine if all humans have the right to life.”

Working off of her last point, Hazzard showed a slide with Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights written on it, “Everyone has a right to life, liberty and security of a person.”

One thing that didn’t change much from the typical talk given by a Christian pro-life speaker? Posters advertising the event were torn down.

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The UGA chapter of Students for Life Co-Vice President Rebecca Stapleford and others saw the controversial side of the abortion debate this week when many of their posters advertising for their event were torn down.

“I put up posters at Park Hall, and they were taken down six or seven times,” said Stapleford, who is a junior Greek, Latin, and classic culture major from Anchorage, Alaska. “It was crazy persistent. I went to class and within five minutes they were gone.”