Brandy makes an interesting observation: all the anti-abortion activists seem to be Christian. No Jews, no Muslims, no atheists. Any idea why?
In fact, are there any non-Christian anti-abortion groups?
Edit: it was pointed out that the original phrasing “pro-life” was a bit silly– all religions are pro life, some are not pro-choice.
Um…that’s a pretty flawed observation.
A quick search provided the following-
Atheist:
http://www.godlessprolifers.org/home.html
http://www.fnsa.org/fall98/reed.html
http://www.l4l.org/library/cathchoi.html
Religious(Non-Christian):
http://www.all-creatures.org/murti/index.html
http://www.jewsforlife.org/
Across the Board:
http://www.feministsforlife.org/
http://www.l4l.org/
This isn’t an answer, but it’s something. From what I’ve been told, Judaism looks at a fetus as if it were a limb of the mother’s. Like with an arm, you wouldn’t cut it off unless it were threatening the rest of the body. In other words, from what I understand, Judaism would discourage abortions made for any reason other than the mother’s life being threatened by the pregnancy.
This might make one think that there *would* be Jewish anti-abortion groups, but, as you point out, if there are, they’re not good at getting press.
Nat Hentoff is both an atheist and Jewish.
Google “pro-life” and “atheist” and you get a number of organizations.
While Judaism does tend to discourage abortions, it doesn’t prohibit them. Judaism also doesn’t consider a fetus to have a soul, in the same way that Catholicism does. So performing an abortion is not equivalent to murder under Jewish law.
The question is, “Are there any pro-lifers willing to:
a)accept that their values are not those of everyone else
b)able to put form their argument in any terms other than religious, and
c) willing to mind their own business.”
As soon as one puts one’s arguments in terms of “Scripture”, “Holy Writ”, or “God’s Law”, it demonstrates a level of arrogance achievable only by the hopelessly self righteous.
While Judaism does tend to discourage abortions, it doesn’t prohibit them. Judaism also doesn’t consider a fetus to have a soul, in the same way that Catholicism does. So performing an abortion is not equivalent to murder under Jewish law.
It was apparently… interesting when my mother-in-law was in labor at a Catholic hospital with a Jewish OB/GYN and the question came up of who would be saved if a choice had to be made between her or the child.
-Rex Hondo-
Manny…atheists who are pro-life do not frame their reasons under religious arguments. The problem with they “don’t they understand not everyone agrees” logic is simply, if they believe it’s murder, that is not something they are comfortable doing the “agree to disagree” thing with. When they think it’s murder, why on earth would it matter to them that others don’t agree it is murder?
Thom, I stand partially corrected. I forgot to change “and” to “or”. It still comes down to people who have difficulty with the concept of other people
refusing to live a “moral” life.
The principle extends to gay marriage, the environment or the extreme fringe of any issue. I just seem to see most issues such as abortion or gay marriage couched in religious terms.
I take a “You live your life, I’ll live mine” attitude. If I disagree with some aspect of conduct on your part, I avoid your company.
So, I modify my three questions, “Are there any pro-lifers, religious, or atheist, willing to:
a)accept that their values are not those of everyone else
b)able to put form their argument in any terms other than religious, or
c) willing to mind their own business.”
Manny,
I don’t disagree overall. I see a distinct difference. I understand why, in abortion, they have a hard time with “agree to disagree”. I mean, the genocide in Darfur…apparently, the people who committed genocide disagreed that it was wrong. Should we shrug it off-agree to disagree? To the pro-life movement? There is no difference between a citizen in Darfur being killed and an unborn fetus. But with gay marriage? No leg to stand on.