In today's episode, we'll answer the question, do Christians have to be abortion abolitionists?

Or is it possible that Christians should actually oppose abortion abolitionism?

In order to answer those questions, let's take a look at what makes abortion abolitionists different from pro-lifers like myself.

To do that, I'm going to examine the five tenets of abolitionism as listed

on the abolitionist Rising website. I also messaged abolitionist rising to see if they wanted to

review the script for today's episode, but didn't hear back from them. Number one, immediate and uncompromising.

Abortion abolitionists believe it's wrong to support any law against abortion unless that law is a

total ban on abortion that includes legal penalties for women who obtain abortions. So they would say it's

wrong to vote for a law that outlaws all abortions but only punishes abortion providers. Or they would

say it's wrong to vote for the law to change from all abortion being legal to abortion only being legal in very narrow cases, like pregnancies caused by assault, or if a woman's life and health are in danger. There's two justifications you could make for this kind of position, a justification in principle and a justification

in practice. Let's take a look at both. A principal justification says we must do X, regardless of the

consequences, because we're morally obligated to simply do X. So, for example, Christians must morally

condemn drunkenness because the Bible morally obligates us to condemn do X. So for example, Christians must morally condemn drunkenness because the Bible

morally obligates us to condemn this sin. A practical justification, on the other hand, says we should do

X because it's the best way to achieve some good end. So for example, a person might argue that

Christians have a practical justification to ban alcohol because this would presumably reduce drunkenness.

Notice in this case that the justification rests entirely on the practical consequences of the act, and not the intrinsic morality of the act itself.

That leaves room for saying the practical justification does not exist because it will not lead to the proposed consequences, such as alcohol prohibition causing greater evils than it was supposed to prevent.

When it comes to abortion abolitionists, they rely primarily on a principled justification for saying that incremental pro-life laws are immoral. According to them, the very act of

supporting these laws is evil and has nothing to do with the consequences. Even if the abolitionist

approach did not result in a single life being saved from abortion, abolitionists say, we are

obligated to follow their methods because God has commanded that we do this.

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