The Case for Life

On our Legislative Updates radio program this week, we have been reviewing pro-life arguments that testify to the inherent sanctity of life. In that vein, a helpful book was released earlier this year entitled The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture. Written by Scott Klusendorf, the book helps to equip Christians with facts and arguments that show unborn babies are worthy of life and ought to be protected from being killed by abortions.

A website associated with the book serves as a great resource for contending for the unborn in the public square. For example, using the acronym SLED (Size, Level of development, Environment, and Dependence), we note that there are no morally distinctive differences between a child inside the womb and one outside the womb.

The worth of a child is not determined by his or her size; we don’t esteem a future basketball player as more valuable than a future gymnast on account of size. But yet many pro-abortion activists say that because an unborn child is small that it’s somehow justifiable to take his or her life.

The difference in level of development between a toddler and a national honor student is massive, but yet we don’t say that a toddler is somehow less worthy of life because of limited mental faculties.

Environment or location also do not determine the value or worth of a child, despite many abortion proponents arguing that the trip down the birth canal bestows a right to life not enjoyed in the womb. We ought never to fall into the fallacy that your environment determines your value.

Lastly, one’s dependence does not determine his or her worth. We never would tell someone on insulin that because he happens to be totally dependent on something outside himself for his livelihood that we can kill him. Why is it that we do that exact thing with a human dependent on an umbilical cord?

Check out the website for more.