How to talk about pro-life: Two words we must always use
A pro-life old pal was telling me yesterday that back in 1974 he heard one of the founders of the U.S. pro-life movement, John Willke, M.D., dispense real wisdom about how to talk about pro-life.
Dr. Willke wrote the pioneering pro-life Handbook on Abortion in 1971. In an address in 1974, he said there are two words that pro-lifers must always use: "Baby" and "kill."
The reason is that only those two words truly, accurately say what abortion is. Killing the baby is what abortion is.
We pro-lifers need to take Dr. Willke's counsel today. The babies need us to take his counsel, if we are to have any hope of saving them from being aborted.
Why am I writing about this now?
Because even some of the most prominent pro-life leaders today have gotten away, far away, from Dr. Willke's truth-telling, life-saving wisdom.
They do not say "baby." They say, "life." Or they say, "unborn life."
Nor do they say "kill." They say, "destroy."
The trouble is that "life" is an abstraction, whereas "baby" is a person, an individual.
And "destroy" is what is done to an injured racehorse on the track -- an animal -- not to people.
No headlines say, "Psychiatrist destroys life at Army base."
You and I need to treat our little brothers and sisters in the womb as we would want people to treat us if we were in their position -- as real persons, real individuals, who are of dignity and worth equal to us and to everyone who is already born.
So let's be sure to always say, "baby" and "kill."
That way we'll keep the babies, and what happens to them, at the center of things. And that will make people think, and will even touch their hearts. And that in turn will end up saving some babies, and maybe many, from being aborted.
Dr. Willke wrote the pioneering pro-life Handbook on Abortion in 1971. In an address in 1974, he said there are two words that pro-lifers must always use: "Baby" and "kill."
The reason is that only those two words truly, accurately say what abortion is. Killing the baby is what abortion is.
We pro-lifers need to take Dr. Willke's counsel today. The babies need us to take his counsel, if we are to have any hope of saving them from being aborted.
Why am I writing about this now?
Because even some of the most prominent pro-life leaders today have gotten away, far away, from Dr. Willke's truth-telling, life-saving wisdom.
They do not say "baby." They say, "life." Or they say, "unborn life."
Nor do they say "kill." They say, "destroy."
The trouble is that "life" is an abstraction, whereas "baby" is a person, an individual.
And "destroy" is what is done to an injured racehorse on the track -- an animal -- not to people.
No headlines say, "Psychiatrist destroys life at Army base."
You and I need to treat our little brothers and sisters in the womb as we would want people to treat us if we were in their position -- as real persons, real individuals, who are of dignity and worth equal to us and to everyone who is already born.
So let's be sure to always say, "baby" and "kill."
That way we'll keep the babies, and what happens to them, at the center of things. And that will make people think, and will even touch their hearts. And that in turn will end up saving some babies, and maybe many, from being aborted.
posted by Quintero at 9:58 PM
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