Reasons Why We Should Stop Using This Meme
The meme in question is really more of a response to a pro-choice slogan. The slogan is well known: “My body, my choice.” In response, many pro-lifers will share a meme which goes something like this: It has an outline of a pregnant woman with the unborn child clearly visible. It points to the woman’s body and says “your body”, then it points to the unborn child and says “not your body” or “someone else’s body”. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:
I began this discussion on Facebook and seemed to start a bit of a controversy. So I wanted to take this opportunity to go into further detail about why I think pro-lifers should stop using this meme.
The problem with this response is it completely misses the point of the objection. You can argue for a true conclusion with bad premises. But if your argument has bad premises, then it should be rejected, even if the conclusion is true. Consider this argument:
P1: All cats have nine lives.
P2: All animals with nine lives are mammals.
C: All cats are mammals.
The conclusion is clearly true but the premises are false. Since the argument is a bad one (or, in logical parlance, it is unsound), it should be rejected, even though it leads to a true conclusion. Instead, we should use a good argument to prove the conclusion. Consider this better argument:
P1: All animals that produce milk to feed their young are mammals.
P2: All cats are animals that produce milk to feed their young.
C: All cats are mammals.
This argument is a good one because it uses true premises to support its conclusion.
When a pro-choice person says the slogan “my body, my choice”, they can mean at least one of four possible things: 1) The fetus is a literal part of the woman’s body, like her kidney or lung; 2) The fetus is still in the womb, not even in the world yet, so abortion will not be a serious harm to the fetus; 3) The woman’s body is sacrosanct so she can do whatever she wants to anything in or on her body; or 4) A woman should not be forced to remain as life support to anyone, be it a human being or otherwise. The response “it’s not your body, so it’s not your choice” responds to only one of these concerns, the first one. While it’s possible pro-abortion advocates have just gotten dumber in the last year or so and think the fetus is a literal part of her body, I will say that I’ve done pro-life outreach at over a dozen college campuses across the United States and I’ve done pro-life presentations at philosophy clubs, conferences, churches, college groups, etc. I think it’s safe to say I’ve interacted with hundreds of pro-abortion advocates and in all the interactions I’ve had, only two have ever expressed to me that they believe the fetus is a literal part of the woman’s body. This response just misses the point the vast majority of pro-abortion advocates are making with this slogan.
So I would agree that this slogan is question-begging on the part of the pro-abortion advocate. The problem, though, is the pro-life response is just as question-begging. You can’t answer a logical fallacy with another logical fallacy. When someone tells you it’s the woman’s body so it’s the woman’s choice, you need to address her specific concern. Many pro-abortion advocates know there’s another body involved. The ones who don’t believe that the fetus is a mere “clump of cells” or a malignant growth that needs to be removed, like a tumor. Very few pro-abortion advocates believe they are talking about a part of a woman’s body that needs to be amputated. And rather than begging our own question, we need to get at the root of their concern — to show that if there is another person at issue here, then bodily rights cannot be invoked to justify killing him.
So what do you think? Agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments. As long as the conversation remains cordial, I’m happy to keep the discussion going. Comments which are obscene, degrading, or spam will be deleted.