W.T.F. Abortion Billboards?

First let me say I’m not tryna get all ~*~*controversial~*~!~!~!~!~* up in hurr. I know several people who are pro-life whose views I respect. This post is not about spewing a liberal agenda or making fun of people who are pro-life.

This post is about how to make an argument in a logical and charitable way (you know, the way you want to dialogue if you actually care about changing people’s minds instead of manipulating them through guilt and fear) or more specifically, how to not do that, as established by the following images. How can anyone of any political or ethical persuasion look at the average abortion billboard and feel intellectually compelled by the ‘argument?’ Not sure what they’re like where you live, but driving around the rural midwest you will pretty much see a nonstop string of billboards with the same formula: fallacious text over ‘cute’ babies.

This is exactly what I mean. As someone with a Master’s in Bioethics I have heard just about every argument about personhood and the point at which a fetus or embryo receives moral value. Is it conception? The point of viability? Birth?

There are compelling arguments for any of these points of view. But hiccups? What in the eff do hiccups have to do with a right to life? “Oh, better not abort this baby because before it was born its diaphragm could involuntarily spasm!”

Please also bear in mind that adult pigs get hiccups and instead of making billboards for them, we put them in tiny cages and then chop them up.

Now, certainly there are other ‘arguments’ that found Prolife Across America’s mission, but without stating them on the billboard they have committed a fallacy.

Again, what do fingerprint have to do with moral worth? “Hey I have a great idea, instead of executing criminals let’s just burn off their fingerprints! That’ll show them!”

Okay this poster is hella distrubing on its own, isn’t it? Also arms, bye. I think there are some other species of animals (all of them) that have arms. We gonna stop eating McRibs now? U mad Pro Life America?

So did a houseplant!

…and bachelors are unmarried men. Vegetarians are people who don’t eat meat. The Bible is infallible because The Bible says it is infallible. I know aliens exist because aliens just exist, you guys. A = A. But what exactly has my tautology proven? Circular reasoning FTL.

Oh please do not even get me started. Seriously, do not make me say it. You know what I’m thinking.

Okay if she actually said that, go straight to hell. That said, isn’t it the case that the ideal best case scenario for both pro-life and pro-choice individuals is not to have unwanted pregnancies occur in the first place? So then isn’t it a tad inconsistent to suggest that Planned Parenthood is somehow soliciting/encouraging African American (unwanted) pregnancies so that they can then convince the women to abort them? If you really wanted to ‘exterminate a population’ wouldn’t you just hope that no one got pregnant?

This honestly makes no sense to me except I guess it’s a little better than the, “What if Jesus was Aborted?” meme. Which is so ridiculous, obviously, because if it is to be believed that God junked Jesus into Mary without Mary having sex then probably he could keep Mary from getting an abortion. Amirite?

Laura Hope Smith died because the doctor performing her abortion placed her under sedation without cardiac monitoring and with no blood pressure cuff. He also operated without an assistant and he didn’t call 911 right away when he discovered that she wasn’t breathing. Hate to break it to you, but you could die getting a root canal if your doctor behaved this way. Sure, if she hadn’t been there to get an abortion she wouldn’t have died, but you can die crossing the street to get to church. Doesn’t seem to provide a compelling argument against abortion itself.

If you really care about unborn babies, or potential babies, or whatever we can all agree on calling them, you should get an informed opinion and share it in a respectful, logical way. This may be persuasive on first glance, but it won’t really change anyone’s beliefs when considered logically. Instead, let’s have some real discussions ya’ll.