Where Is The Line?

My pro-life friends, where is the line?

I understand your position on the question of abortion. I respect it.

I understand that many of you are voting for Donald Trump because you know for a fact that Clinton will nominate pro-choice judges, and therefore you must vote against her in order to advance the pro-life agenda.

But where is your line? Where do you draw the line in your deals to get the pro-life agenda moved forward?

You absolutely have the right to advance a pro-life agenda: that’s democracy.

You absolutely have the right to be a single issue voter and vote for someone you find abhorrent at every level because you happen to agree with her/him on one issue: immigration, abortion, Syria, foreign trade, gun rights, whatever.

But where do you draw the line? At what point do the means fail to justify the end?

Doctors have been murdered in defense of the pro-life agenda.

Wait, wait, you say, that wasn’t us! That was a fringe group!

Why does that statement sound familiar? Oh right, because that’s what Muslims say about terrorists.

When you vote for Donald Trump, many of you admit that the man is disgusting to you. You don’t think he’s truly a Christian. You wouldn’t allow him to attend your Christian universities. You wouldn’t participate in his “locker room talk.” But it’s worth it in defense of the pro-life agenda.

Well, I suppose once people started killing abortion providers, a simple vote for a misogynist shouldn’t surprise me.

Oh right, I’m sorry, there I go again, confusing the actions of a few extremists with the movement as a whole.

I’m angry, because I don’t know where you draw the line.

If this summer, Clinton had announced she were pro-life and Trump announced he were pro-choice, would you be voting for Clinton next month?

If Trump announced today that he had forced Melania to have an abortion in the last 10 years, would you be voting for Trump next month?

If it were revealed that Trump believes women should not have the right to vote at all, would you still vote for him because he is pro-life?

If Trump announced that he was going to declare war on China and North Korea, would you still vote for him because he is pro-life?

If the only pro-life candidate in this campaign were Muslim, would you vote for him/her?

If the only pro-life candidate were Bernie Sanders, would you vote for him?

Given the pro-life's continued support of a candidate like Donald Trump, these are valid questions. Yes, they are hypothetical. But the pro-life camp is voting for a serial adulterer who swears like a sailor, openly lies, has 5 children with 3 different women, outsources his products, admits to taking bribes, insults women and soldiers, can't name a single verse in the Bible, and advocates for his opponent to be thrown in jail. I'm not sure anything is out of bounds at this point.

Where do you draw the line in your personal commitment to the pro-life agenda?

Are you willing to adopt a child who would otherwise be aborted?

Are you willing to provide birth control to men and women who would otherwise use abortion as birth control?

Are you willing to allow individuals, in cooperation with their doctors, to decide for abortion if the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother?

Are you willing to allow doctors to perform abortions to remove a dead fetus? (Note well, an abortion can refer to a procedure that removes dead tissue from a uterus. It does not necessarily mean ending the life of the fetus).

Are you willing to work to end all rape?

Because here is the problem. Those of us who aren’t pro-life don’t know where your limits are. We don’t know if we can trust you to support us if the question of abortion comes up.

I specifically wonder, if a fetus dies in utero, and the woman does not go into labor, will you allow her to die rather than allow the obstetrician to perform a D&C? Because if you allow doctors to LEARN how to perform a D&C, aren’t you just setting them up to perform abortions on living fetuses? Where is the line?

I specifically wonder, if I had a life threatening condition and my best shot at life was an abortion, would I be allowed to get one? Because at what point of percentage do YOU define my best shot at life? 50%? 75%? Where is the line?

I specifically wonder, if you don’t want government insurance to cover the birth control pill, but you’re OK with it covering Viagra, does that mean you’re OK with an impotent man raping a woman because he wants a child? Where is the line?

But none of this addresses the real question, which is this:

What exactly is the pro-life agenda?

Do you want to make abortion illegal?

Do you want to make ALL abortion methods illegal, regardless of their medical purpose?

Or do you want to make abortion unnecessary? Unnecessary because rape is eradicated, because men are required to get vasectomies if they cannot pay child support for their existing children, because women and men have access to birth control, because no children go to bed hungry in this country?

If you really want to make abortion stop, what is the most effective method? Making it illegal, or addressing the causes?

Where is the line?