Quotes by Justin Taylor

Imagine a boy in the backyard calling to his dad, “Hey Dad, can I kill this?” What does the dad need to know before he can answer his son’s question? Just one thing: what is it? If it’s a cockroach, the dad will cheer his son on. If it’s the neighbor’s cat, it’s another matter altogether! The application of this commonsensical principle is this: determining what is in the womb determines how you will treat what is in the womb.

Try thinking of…the acronym SLED and you’ll see [the evils of abortion] even more clearly: Size. How big you are doesn’t determine who you are. Level of development. How developed you are doesn’t determine who you are. Environment. Where you are doesn’t determine who you are. Degree of dependency. How dependent you are on another doesn’t determine who you are… No amount of size or development or location or dependency makes you more human or less human than another.

Perhaps you’ve seen the bumper sticker or T-shirt that says, “Against abortion? Don’t have one.” It’s basically making the [point]: if you oppose abortion, good for you – don’t have one; but also don’t tell other people what they can and can’t do. I wonder why no one applies this to other issues: Against child abuse? Don’t do it. Against slavery? Don’t own one. Against rape? Don’t do it. The bumper sticker sounds compelling at first – until you stop and think about it.

The issue is not “choice” per se; it’s the object of that choice that’s being debated. What we need to do is to encourage people to finish that sentence. “Women have a right to choose – what?” “An abortion.” “An abortion of what?” We need to move beyond euphemism to get to the heart of the matter: does anyone have the right to choose to kill an unborn human being? If so, why not logically also have the right to kill an already-born human being?

“The issue is too complex; smart people disagree, and I don’t think I can say one way or the other whether abortion is the taking of a human life.” A response like this is a confession of ignorance, and that is welcome. But if we don’t know, shouldn’t we err on the side of life? If I’m on a hunting trip and see something moving behind a tree and can’t decide whether it’s a fellow human being or a buck, should we conclude that shooting is thereby permissible? If there’s even a chance that what’s in the womb is an innocent human being, then we cannot support killing it.

Rape and incest are unfathomably wicked acts of violence and violation that deserve our moral revulsion against the perpetrator and our deepest compassion for the victim. And children are indeed conceived in a very small percentage of rape and incest cases. But this child, painful though the circumstances may be, has done nothing wrong, and perpetuating another act of violence against an innocent victim is not the solution. The fact remains that how someone was conceived does not determine who he or she is. We know this intuitively, given that no one would advocate killing a child already born based upon the way he or she was conceived. We should also remember that there are many couples who are willing and eager to adopt children in such a situation.

Abortion is not just an act of unjustified violence against a fellow human being (in fact, the smallest, weakest, most defenseless among us). It is an act of rebellious treason against our Maker (the greatest and most powerful person in the universe). In one act we simultaneously destroy the weak and dishonor the Almighty. If we take Jesus’ double love command seriously – to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind; and to love our neighbor as ourselves – we cannot be indifferent to abortion.