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> If they actually thought there were half a million babies being murdered every year, tens of millions since Roe, they would have done something actively to st

> If they actually thought there were half a million babies being murdered every year, tens of millions since Roe, they would have done something actively to stop it. By that argument, no abolitionist except for John Brown actually believed that chattel slavery was wrong. No suffragettes except the anarchists actually believed that women should have the right to vote. No blacks in the USA in the 1960s actually believed they were equal in dignity with their white brothers. Non-violent responses to violent outrages are a very Christian approach to the problems of evil. That doesn't mean there's no suffering involved. Pro-life activists are regularly arrested, assaulted, battered, and insulted. Pro-life organizations spend millions of dollars (gifted in charity by hundreds of thousands of pro-life people) every year helping woman who find themselves in difficult positions choose life and give their children a better life after birth. Time and treasure poured out for a cause are a better measure of the importance of a cause that the total weight of bullets expended in overcoming the other side.

jlmorton 4y ago
That's not remotely true. There were several million people involved in active efforts to undermine and end slavery through direct action, including through actions like the Underground Railroad, rebellions like Stono, and of course it ultimately did lead directly to civil war.
- svieira 4y ago
  There's been plenty of direct action by pro-life people that wasn't violent ranging from prayer vigils / sit-ins / Red Rose Rescue through to pregnancy centers and education. The side that triggered the Civil War was the side that was in the wrong, so I'm not sure what truth you are pointing to there.
  - jlmorton 4y ago
    Note that I do not claim that pro-life activists have no serious moral aversion to abortion. I believe that they do. I think pro-life activists believe unborn fetuses have certain rights worthy of protection. However, their rhetoric goes much further than that. Their rhetoric says that abortion is equivalent to murder, and thus justifies curtailing inalienable rights held by women. The right of self-defense of others is something very close to universally accepted. If there were an equivalent number of five year old kids being aborted, we would not see milquetoast efforts like sit-ins and prayer vigils, actions with both little consequence and impact. I believe Eric Rudolph believed abortion is murder. But all those people at prayer vigils, sit-ins, Red Rose Rescue, and pregnancy centers do not. They see it as something bad, but less than murder. If a half million five year old kids are being murdered, you can't just go about your life and attend an annual March for Life protest. What kind of a person doesn't do more? This is systematic, legal, mass-scale child murder we're talking about.

jlmorton 4y ago

That's not remotely true. There were several million people involved in active efforts to undermine and end slavery through direct action, including through actions like the Underground Railroad, rebellions like Stono, and of course it ultimately did lead directly to civil war.

svieira 4y ago
There's been plenty of direct action by pro-life people that wasn't violent ranging from prayer vigils / sit-ins / Red Rose Rescue through to pregnancy centers and education. The side that triggered the Civil War was the side that was in the wrong, so I'm not sure what truth you are pointing to there.
- jlmorton 4y ago
  Note that I do not claim that pro-life activists have no serious moral aversion to abortion. I believe that they do. I think pro-life activists believe unborn fetuses have certain rights worthy of protection. However, their rhetoric goes much further than that. Their rhetoric says that abortion is equivalent to murder, and thus justifies curtailing inalienable rights held by women. The right of self-defense of others is something very close to universally accepted. If there were an equivalent number of five year old kids being aborted, we would not see milquetoast efforts like sit-ins and prayer vigils, actions with both little consequence and impact. I believe Eric Rudolph believed abortion is murder. But all those people at prayer vigils, sit-ins, Red Rose Rescue, and pregnancy centers do not. They see it as something bad, but less than murder. If a half million five year old kids are being murdered, you can't just go about your life and attend an annual March for Life protest. What kind of a person doesn't do more? This is systematic, legal, mass-scale child murder we're talking about.