Hoist By Their Own Petard

Pro-lifers are often beaten up with the "yeah, but you're pro Iraq-war, pro-death penalty, and pro-gun, so you're just a hypocrite" argument, which if you think about it just a little, completely backfires. This article does a nice job explaining why.

excerpt:

[I]f you argue that being opposed to abortion obligates one to also oppose the death penalty and the war in Iraq, you’re appealing (whether sincerely or cynically) to what you’ve just implicitly acknowledged is the abortion opponent’s greater respect for human life. Ergo, pro-choicers who make this argument thus admit that they have less respect for human life than pro-lifers. Which means that in order to remain logically consistent (hang on, we’re almost there!), the pro-choice are morally bound to also support the death penalty, wars of liberation in Iraq and elsewhere, and my right to blast armed intruders into Kingdom Come, among other pro-choice, anti-life positions.

I take it, then, that all you NARAL folks out there are also big supporters of the death penalty and the war in Iraq, right? Hey, what’s with all the "crickets chirping" sound effects all of a sudden? Is it my imagination, or is your argument washing away faster than the words of Ilsa’s letter to Rick during the first airport scene in Casablanca?

I mean, whenever I hear the argument being used, my response is, "Oh, so why are YOU opposed to war and the death penalty, but so in favor of killing babies? You've just asked me a question that makes killing babies sound like a bad thing, and that all these issues should line up. Are you saying that if I suddenly became antiwar, antigun, and anti-death penalty, that you'd be anti-abortion? If not, then YOU'RE the hypocrite. And also, a MANIPULATIVE hypocrite."

Isn't to say, "You're against killing babies so you should be anti-this, that, and the other thing", the same as saying, "I am pro killing babies, so I should be pro-this, that, and the other thing?" or the same as saying "Because I am anti-this, that, and the other thing, I ought to be anti-killing babies?" Come on, lefties, if your charge carries any weight with you, then either come out in favor of war, guns, and the death penalty, or against abortion. One or the other. Or, alternatively, shut up. At least when it comes to that particular argument.