A non-theistic defense of the Pro-Life position

[repeater75]

I'm most definitely a Christian and staunchly pro-life.

While I tend to use the method taught here from Scott Klusendorf, I also find it interesting to know the very strong arguments that come from a non-theistic worldview.

The best resource I've found in my traversing of the interwebs has been the Libertarians for Life group which uses the Libertarian principle of non-aggression as its lynchpin.

They state it briefly this way:

To explain and defend our case, LFL argues that:

1. Human offspring are human beings, persons from conception, whether that takes place as natural or artificial fertilization, by cloning, or by any other means.

2. Abortion is homicide -- the killing of one person by another.

3. One's right to control one's own body does not allow violating the obligation not to aggress. There is never a right to kill an innocent person. Prenatally, we are all innocent persons.

4. A prenatal child has the right to be in the mother's body. Parents have no right to evict their children from the crib or from the womb and let them die. Instead both parents, the father as well as the mother, owe them support and protection from harm.

5. No government, nor any individual, has a just power to legally "de-person" any one of us, born or preborn.

6. The proper purpose of the law is to side with the innocent, not against them.

And they have tons of other articles and a more thorough explanation at their site.

Since most pro-lifer's I know haven't come across that before, I thought I'd share. I hope it is of some value to you.

[Jedidiah]

Oh yes. I came to reject abortion as a non theistic for quite similar reasons.

[Chaotic Void]

Yeah, I remember stumbling onto that site a while back (There's also a site out there called "Godless Pro-Lifers"). People seem to think that being Pro-Life is just a kooky 'Religious Right' position (ironically, while I am a Pro-Life Christian I'm politically moderate), but the fact of the matter is I'd still be Pro-Life even if I was Atheist, Liberal or otherwise.

[repeater75]

Well, I believe anyone is Pro-Life because they know there are absolute moral values because I also believe that everyone knows that God exists but some just reject Him and suppress their knowledge of Him. (Romans 1:18-24)

However, if we can save the lives of innocents by appealing to their reasoning (which still depends on the God they deny as a starting point anyway), then I'm for it.

[Catholicity]

I think there is a group out there called secular Pro-Life that rejects abortion for medical reasons