Persuasive Pro Life: How to Talk about Our Culture's Toughest Issue

by Trent Horn

I recommend four steps for answering an ad hominem argument. First, correct misunderstandings of the pro-life position. Some people tell me that if I’m pro-life then I’m inconsistent for not being a vegetarian. Or they say that if I think it’s always wrong to kill humans, then I should be against all wars. But those positions are not essential to the pro-life worldview. The pro-life position is that all human beings are persons with a right to life, and therefore it is generally wrong to kill those human beings. However, cows and pigs are not members of a rational kind (or persons), and so they do not have a right to life. In regard to war, killing someone can be a moral act, even if the person has a right to life. The same applies to killing in self-defense. The pro-life position holds only that we must not violate someone’s right to life. Since the unborn do not pose a threat to anyone’s life, self-defense is not a justification of abortion.261 By clearing up these misunderstandings you can make charges of inconsistency evaporate.