Scott Klusendorf has written an article entitled Five Bad Ways to Argue About Abortion. One of the mistakes he points out is known as the Ad hominem fallacy where people attack the person rather than refute the argument. The following is an excerpt from the article where he specifically deals with the challenge: you say you disagree with abortion – so how many babies have you adopted?
“Consider also the claim that pro-lifers are hypocritical to protest abortion unless they adopt babies they do not want aborted. For the moment, let’s assume there are not two million American families willing to do this, as is the case. How would the alleged reluctance of pro-lifers to adopt babies justify the act of abortion? While it is true that pro-life advocates should help those facing crisis pregnancies, it is not true that abortion is justified whenever that obligation is left unmet.
Imagine a bigot arguing, Unless you agree to marry my wife, you have no right to oppose me beating her. Or, Unless you are willing to adopt my three sons by noon today, I shall execute them. If you reject his ultimatum, is he morally justified performing acts of violence on innocent victims?”
Of course pro-lifers should offer to adopt unwanted babies whenever possible, and Prolife UC’s adoption offer stands. However attempting to defend abortion on the grounds that pro-lifers are not consistent when they don’t adopt, is poor logic.
