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You refer to abortion as "an abomination" in your book and compare it to murder, yet you imply that women who get abortions and those who support the abortion movement may still be good people. How do these ideas square with one another?

Yes, I think both statements are true. However, this is an area which causes much confusion. Many people who are unsure about abortion tend to think of friends whom they respect and admire and say, "Well, they are not terrible people; therefore, abortion must not be a terrible thing."

The problem is that even "good" people--people with a conscience, people who are fully alive to right and wrong--can do terrible things. Infanticide figured prominently in many cultures until recent times. Does that mean that the mothers or fathers who killed their infant children were beasts? No, of course not. If they were raised in a culture which did not recognize the right to life of infants or young children, it may never have even occurred to them that they were doing anything wrong. But, while that may make the parents less culpable for the killing, it does not make the killing of their children any less terrible.

The problem with abortion is very similar. We live in a society which does not recognize the right to life of the unborn, and which tells women that their unborn children are not human and not alive. Women may get an abortion without ever realizing that they have killed a human being or that their action is irreconcilable with the idea that all human beings have a right to life. There is a big difference between someone who snuffs out the life of a human being but doesn't realize the victim is human, and someone who knows that the victim is human but doesn't care. (The same reasoning applies to those who support abortion and even those who perform or assist in them.) Some otherwise "good" people may get abortions. But the fact that they are less culpable than others does not make the destruction of their unborn children less tragic.

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