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Are there any pro-life atheists out there?

Recently, while browsing through the groups, I came across a Pro-life group. It has only one member-it's founder, and that got me to thinking...Are there any pro-life atheists out there? And being that most, if not all arguments I've heard against abortions are usually religious in nature, what would be the atheists argument(s) against abortion?

Personally, I am pro-choice. I fully support every womans right to choose.

Tags: abortion, groups, pro-life

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Permalink Reply by TRZ on October 22, 2008 at 5:35pm

Frankly, I'm flabbergasted at any anti-choice atheist. But then, there are atheists who believe in tarot cards and ouija boards.

Lots of people here identify themselves as pro-life but then state they would not presume to dictate to another person what to do. That stance makes you pro-choice. Period. (it also makes you not an asshole.)

I am astonished that atheists, who are supposed to dig science and reason, still insist on anthropomorphizing blastocysts. It's not a human, it's a potential human. Potential does not determine value. Anyone who says otherwise, I suspect, has been tainted with the Judeo Christian notion that that magical little blastocyst is infused with a "soul".

The attitude of "let's punish those irresponsible sluts by forcing them to gestate to term" is horrific in ways I can't even explain.

I love life. I love kids. I love animals, plants, families, babies, toddlers. I am also an adult woman who has been sexually active for ten years of glorious fucking completely unburdened by weird Judeo Christian hangups. Never been pregnant. If I were to become pregnant tomorrow (a statistical near impossibility since I have followed rigorous contraceptive procedures since the day I lost my V-card) I would terminate the pregnancy and not lose a wink of sleep.

I hope someday to have kids though, but I would value them enough to time them such that I could financially and emotionally provide for them.

P.S. A properly done pharmaceutical abortion involves the introduction of a chemical which inhibits folacin uptake and stops the cells from dividing. This must be performed quite early on in the pregnancy. I would LOVE for a fellow atheist to try and explain to me how that procedure is inhumane.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Peter Robinson on October 25, 2008 at 4:41pm

Yes. Me, for example.

l4l.org has some great nonreligious arguments against abortion.

I subscribe to a Consistent Life Ethic.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Peter Robinson on October 25, 2008 at 4:45pm

Oh, and I also support comprehensive sex ed.

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Permalink Reply by Agki Strodon on October 26, 2008 at 6:25pm

What is that URL again? |4|.org? It doesn't lead anywhere.

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Permalink Reply by SaintColtrane on November 2, 2008 at 6:06am

Socially, I'm pro-choice. I think it is horrible for a government or other group to force a pro-life stance on it's people. However, personally I'm pro-life. Being socially pro-life and male means I don't actually have much choice in the issue, but I don't think I could opt to abort a life I created given the choice. I realize that it might only be a group of a few cells but the idea of it bothers me. I can't exactly explain why, I just know that it does.

Having said all that, I'm not sure that I would ever want to have children anyway! I have friends who adopted and I really think that's the way to go for a bunch of reasons, in the case that I do want to raise a child someday.

What a strange answer, I haven't really thought this out before.

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Permalink Reply by Fran Ugalde on November 10, 2008 at 8:31pm

I'm an atheist, I put myself in the center-left political sphere, but I personally don't like abortions: I wouldn't have one (isn't something called adoption out there?), though I do think that there could be cases in which abortion could be right-extreme cases like a fetus without brain which would kill the mother. I don't think that having an abortion because either you're poor (hence you can't give the kid a good life), or the baby it's mentally retarded (wtf), or you're just plain irresponsible and dumb, is ok.
I'm a law student and as a naturalist, I think that there is a natural law at there that manifests it self in various situations in every human, that we can know with the use of reason...Thinking about that, I doubt that there's anyone out there that won't be disturbed with the images of burn or crashed fetuses after abortions...with a reason. Yep, abortions have been performed since forever, but that doesn't make them any less immoral. Fetuses are a potential human beings that need nothing but time for being a person, as opposite of mother cells, that need outside agents for becoming a human. Then killing an implanted fetus is like an homicide; the fetus is innocent (has it done anything besides being an unwanted child?) and it can't defend it self. Plus I can't see how a fetus is an extension of the mother as a limb is; it is a separate human, but in an extreme temporal dependency...born kids are almost as dependent as they were as a fetus. Then is not something that she can choose freely to do, but only in select cases.
The problem with abortion, for me, is that is political! It has become a discussion between conservative and liberals, between civil right defenders and contra-reactionaries, and the point has been lost; the discussion could be centered in things that can be fixed, like the problem of poorness, sex education, health, etc.

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Permalink Reply by Hank Fox on July 5, 2009 at 10:29pm

"Fetuses are a potential human beings ..."

Cue Monty Python: "Every sperm is sacred ..."

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Permalink Reply by Byron on November 18, 2008 at 8:22pm

I personally am pro-choice. I think abortion is ethically wrong, but my belief that a woman should WANT a child she is pregnant with overrides that belief.

Take a look at this site: http://www.godlessprolifers.org/home.html

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Permalink Reply by Goz on October 5, 2009 at 2:59pm

You can't force a woman to want a child..I was also unwanted.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Peter Robinson on November 24, 2008 at 1:17pm

"I'm pro-life. Which is why I'm pro-choice. I am sick of the human life being devalued by war, capital punishment, torture, overpopulation, and just a shitty attitude toward our fellow man."

Why can't you be against war, capital punishment, torture, overpopulation, etc. AND against abortion.

It's called the Consistent Ethic of Life, largely held by pro-life liberals.

I am a pro-life liberal atheist.

Did I just blow your mind>

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Permalink Reply by Becky Garcia on December 30, 2008 at 2:55pm

Consistent Ethic of Life, huh?

Are you a vegan? Do you only eat fruit? A plant is exactly as a alive as a fetus.

What is your stance on antibiotics?

Do you oppose killing in self defense? I mean, a rapist is alive and he's only trying to use a woman's body against her will for nine minutes, not nine months! So she shouldn't be able to shoot in self defense, right? Because life comes before liberty and bodily domain, right?

If all killing is equivalent to murder, then what do you propose the punishment should be for killing in self defense? Or killing for food?

Most importantly: How should a woman who has an illegal abortion be punished? Something can't be illegal without a punishment. Millions of women have abortions, and abortion bans have not been shown to be effective in actually reducing the amount performed. How do you plan to punish them?

You must understand that by making abortion illegal, you are forcing women to remain pregnant and give birth against their will. I think you owe us an explanation.