During a speaking engagement for her “Lies Feminist Tell” campus tour at Miami University of Oxford, Students for Life of America president Kristan Hawkins broke down the severely flawed and oft-repeated talking point from pro-abortion activists regarding pro-lifers allegedly only caring about children in the womb.
A female attending the event suggested to Hawkins that abortion is justified because some “unwanted” children will end up in the foster care system and suffer.
“An unborn fetus, that cannot live outside the mother, what right do you have to tell me to carry it to term?” she asked. “If it’s an unplanned pregnancy, and odds are, that if it goes into the foster care system, it will face severe neglect and abuse.”
Hawkins framed the feminist’s question more succinctly: “So, you believe that we should have the right to eliminate the sufferer, not the suffering. Is that what you’re saying?”
“That’s not what I’m saying at all. And that’s not what my question is,” the feminist contended.
“You just said that, if you knew that for 100% certainty, that the child you’re birthing is going to have a lifetime of suffering, that it would be better for the child, for you to kill, to end the life of the child, than for the child to suffer. So, instead of attempting to try to solve the suffering of the child, you’ve just eliminated the potential sufferer. Right?” Hawkins again reiterated.
“My question was, how do we end that suffering to make bringing a child that is unwanted into this world justifiable,” the feminist said.
“As pro-lifers and as Americans, we care about the children in foster care, we care about children who are being neglected, who are living on the streets with their parents,” said Hawkins, adding, “I actually don’t believe anyone in this room, regardless if you’re pro-life or pro-choice, thinks that childcare should be suffering in foster care, or children should live through hunger and homelessness.”
“But what you’re advocating for, is you’re trying to justify legal abortion by saying some people are going to suffer, therefore we’re going to play God and we’re going to eliminate the sufferer,” she continued.
“I think that’s absolutely wrong,” said Hawkins. “One, because people come out of adversity. People do suffer. And we will all suffer in our life. But I think it’s wrong for you to say, ‘you will suffer therefore I am going to kill you.’”
Apparently not understanding Hawkins’ point, the feminist repeated herself: “So coming back to my question, how do you propose we solve these problems for the children that are suffering?”
“Do you want to go through today all the world’s problems?” asked Hawkins, again underscoring that the woman’s question was mere obfuscation distracting from the issue of abortion.
The pro-life leader noted that she often hears the common pro-abortion talking point that pro-lifers “don’t care about people once they’re born.”
“Yet, are you upset that the American Diabetes Association doesn’t fight cancer?” asked Hawkins. “Are you upset that the American Diabetes Association doesn’t fight cancer?”
“No,” the feminist conceded.
“Why?” pressed Hawkins.
“Because they are the diabetes foundation,” the woman responded, seemingly aware she was begrudgingly wrapping a bow on Hawkins’ point.
“Exactly!” exclaimed Hawkins. “I am anti-abortion.”
Hawkins noted that real issues, like homelessness and foster care, need their own discussions and policy prescriptions. “But my organization, my mission, is very limited: it’s to abolish abortion; to make abortion illegal and unthinkable, because abortion is the greatest human rights tragedy our world faces. There’s no other act of violence that kills more people every single day in America and across the world than abortion.”
“There is nothing wrong with me fighting and spending 100% of my time doing it,” the pro-lifer continued. “Just like how there’s nothing wrong with the American Diabetes Association putting 100% of their money, their research, and time behind curing juvenile diabetes.”
“No one ever accuses the Diabetes Association or the American Cancer association of not trying to cure every life-ending disease,” she highlighted.
Hawkins ended her answer by noting that too often those accusing pro-lifers of not caring for children post-birth “don’t really care” that pro-lifers are often foster parents, leading adoption efforts, and giving to charity. “It’s just an argument to try to stop the actual discussion from happening, which is abortion is a moral wrong and it should be stopped,” she said.
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