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Are you or have you ever known anyone to be agnostic/atheist AND pro-life? In my experience, all pro-lifers have been religious believers. Of course, not all believers are pro-life, but it appears that all pro-lifers are believers. Anyone have a different experience?

hugh 5 July 3
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21 comments

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8

Pro-life is a misnomer. Pro-life is NOT about life at all, it is about punishment. Pro-lifer's could not care less about life as is demonstrated by their attitude after a child is born. They are interested in punishing a woman for what they consider an indiscretion against their beliefs and society's accepted norms. If a pro-lifer got an unwanted pregnancy, she would have an abortion without a second thought. My opinion of course.

Good point and I realized the controversy of language when it comes to the terms. My point was to simplify. Most of us have been around long enough to know what the terms “pro-life” and “pro-choice” mean. The definitions are usually not up for debate, unless you specifically want them to be. My point was to draw attention to whether or not some pro-lifers ( as it is normally defined) are atheist and how does that work. The debate in the above comment clearly shows that yes, there are some atheists who are anti-abortion. A small group, but they do exist.

@hugh As has been stated in Agnostics.com many times, A-theists can and do believe and accept anything that anyone else does, they just reject the belief that god(s) exist.

6

I never liked the term Pro-Life as it's used to mean Anti-Abortion.
Obviously I'm Pro Life, life is (relatively) good, I don't want to die or to kill anyone.
Go - Live - Be happy.
But I'm 100% Pro-Choice!! I don't think anyone should have any say over what someone else can or can't, should or shouldn't do with their own body.
Obviously there are choices, but terminating an unwanted pregnancy is better than bringing an unwanted child into this world, especially if that child is going to be unloved, mistreated, abused or forced to live a miserable, impoverished life.
I guess I'm Pro-Quality-of-LIfe.

...that probably didn't answer the question.
Everyone with whom I keep company, is Pro-Choice.

I agree with your assessment.

That pretty much sums up how I feel.

First of all, the religious right (at least in the US) believes in the scantily of life, from conception right up until birth.

I personally find the idea of abortion abhorrent. The idea of a life I helped create being terminated pains me.

And I absolutely, without reservation, think I have ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT to tell a woman in that position what to do with her body.

pursuant to my original comment, I submit the following meme.

5

There are agnostics//atheist who are also pro-life. I think most are influenced by religiosu upbringings, and holdign human life as "sacred" can fit into a liberal/progressive belief. Teh differences are in when adn where to apply the "human life is sacred" rule

I for one think that human life shoudl be protected, but not at the expense of other human life.

It is less risky to the life of a woman to abort a pregnancy than to carry it to full term. because there is additional risk to her life, it should always be her shoice as to whether or not to carry to full term. To force a woman to take on that risk, even if slight, for a child she doesn't even want. is simply oppressive.

I think we should protect and take care of those who are already here before we think about the unborn who may not even live through birth.

5

Hitchens was pretty much prolife...

3

Video of an abortion debate within a secular setting.

Source:

Thank you

For one, this is semantical nitpicking of the worst sort and is divorced from reality. Secondly this entire argument completely ignores the fact that in US law and most other civilized countries, no one may be compulsively required to risk their lives for another. Not even police officers or medical staff are required to risk themselves to save anothers life.
So, even if we were to agree that fetuses are people(which I emphatically do not) no woman may be required to risk her life and health to carry that fetus to term against her will.

@Blindbird didn't say it was a good debate (on her part). But they exist.

3

I have noticed something else... it would seem that those who would assault you for wearing a fur are almost consistently pro-choice. Odd little thing there... 😛

3

The abortion topic has come up here in a discussion or two and there are a few anti-abortionists/anti-choiceists.

3

I was recently surprised to learn a close woman friend was against abortions. She is and always has been a strong atheist and vegetarian. My late partner had, had 2 abortions and the two of them were very close. This is a complete mystery to me but one can never make assumptions.

3

A secular humanist could be pro-life, depending on when they feel life begins. Don't know if I've ever seen one though.

I would think that most or all secular humanists respect quality of life over just life itself

2

I consider myself a pragmatist. Women in dire straits with an unwanted pregnancy have ALWAYS done whatever was available to them to try to terminate the pregnancy, legal or not, and safe or not. I'm for keeping abortion safe, legal, and rare and for keeping Uncle Sam out of my (or anyone else's) uterus. If Roe V. Wade is scrapped, women will die. I consider laws outlawing abortion prior to the point of survival outside the womb (a marker that has been trending steadily earlier) to be a violation of the First Amendment, as most of it comes from some sort of religious concept of personhood, not a legal one.

2

One of my best friends and someone I leaned on heavily as I was coming out of religion decided he was an atheist in elementary school bc none of the BS made sense. Until Trump he was also a straight ticket GOP conservative and is pretty strongly pro-life. I've gotten him to soften a bit on the rhetoric and he sees the problems with forcing women to carry babies now, but I'm pretty sure he'd also over-turn Roe V Wade if he were in SCOTUS.

2

Usually, pro-lifing is tied to religion, so I would expect that to be unusual, but I suppose there could be those genuinely respectful of life and perhps are are vegan for the same reason.

godef Level 7 July 3, 2018

They'd have to side step the question of quality of life and autonomy for the woman involved.

@Blindbird Good point. Reminds me that pro-lifers are usually third-party people who can't mind their own business.

1

Christopher Hitchens was anti-abortion although I did not agree with his reasoning.

1

I am pro life and pro choice. I think all babies should be wanted, welcomed and born. However, through personal experience I know it can't always be. I had a baby with severe neural tube defects (yes, more than one defect) that would preclude life outside the womb, and may have caused me to miscarry or worse. I had an abortion. The baby was wanted, planned and welcome. But I made a choice for MY health. This was more than 30 years ago. I would love for every woman never to have to make that choice. No woman makes it happily, but every woman has to make the choice for herself, her health, her family. I spent 20+ years in Christian communities and I have told my story several times. It shuts down arguments really fast. I have a sister with fertility issues, she used to cry knowing babies were being aborted, but she also supports a woman's choice for authority over her body.

1

I'm a conservative-leaning atheist, and even I support individual reproductive rights/pro choice.

I also support a man's right to a symbolic abortion, meaning if the woman wants to keep the child and the man does not, the man should not have to pay child support. Child rearing is a shared process, and both partners involved need to agree for that to work, and what's fair is fair.

1

Of course one can. Make no mistake I support a woman’s right to choose.

1

I don't know any other agnostic/atheist... not even my family or close friends know I am one!! LOL.

1

I had heard Penn Gillette was pro life. When I consulted with all-knowing Google, I found a site dedicated to this - prolifehumanists.org. (Granted, not all humanists are atheist/agnostic, but I did see it mentioned in what little I read.)

dkp93 Level 8 July 3, 2018
0

Generally speaking someone always gets offended by my point of view on this. I used to consider myself "pro-life", I was young and naïve I guess. Basically I just think it's disgusting when someone uses it as a form of birth control. Of course there are Some good reasons sometimes; rape, incest, The mother or the child's life is in danger, etc. A fetus begins to respond to touch towards the end of the first trimester. If it response to touch, I imagine it can feel pain. Yes I can do what I want with my body, I can throw my first into your face, but I have to suffer the repercussions of doing such. Just because your body houses another body shouldn't mean that you can kill it.
Anyhow… I changed my mind, because the people who have a damn good reason to be getting their abortion should have it and the people who are using it as a form of birth control, well, I don't want any of their genes in the pool anyhow. So good, one less person is going to grow up making the same dumbass decisions their parents made.
Come one come all ye offended ...

0

Most of the religious I know are Pro-Life. But the meaning of that seems to be if your not pro life then your pro death. I do not favor abortion but many times it is a pragmatic choice. OMG, I said choice. I could tip more toward anti-abortion if the pro-life folks would consider comprehensive sex ed and access to birth control. But I don't know a pro lifer who can accept either of those things. And it must be said that Pro-Lifers are also the ones who would deny the children they want born relief from poverty, illness, hunger, etc. In my opinion they are pro-fetus.

0

Some have a more nuanced position. Pro abortion if for a really good reason BEFORE the 3rd trimester, but Pro life in the last trimester. It is irresponsible to wait that long.
BC

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