{"id":64298,"date":"2015-05-31T17:33:55","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T21:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=64298"},"modified":"2015-06-01T19:40:40","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T23:40:40","slug":"minister-justifies-abortion-saying-preborn-babies-original-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/minister-justifies-abortion-saying-preborn-babies-original-sin\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister justifies abortion by saying preborn babies have original sin"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Pro-choice Methodist minister John M. Swomley, who was the subject of a LifeNews article in May, <\/a>attempts to refute the claim that preborn babies are \u201cinnocent.\u201d The argument appeared in a book over a decade old, but it is so strange and disturbing that I\u2019m writing about it now that it has come to my attention.<\/p>\n

The gist of Swomley\u2019s argument<\/a> is that preborn babies are not \u201cinnocent\u201d as pro-lifers claim, but are actually guilty \u2013 guilty enough, he implies, to justify aborting them.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Swomley\u00a0first tries to refute the baby\u2019s claim to innocence using theology:<\/p>\n

The first claim is that society should protect innocent human life that is unable to protect itself. The term \u201cinnocent,\u201d originally used by various popes, refers to fetal life which has committed no sin. Yet the Roman Catholic Church has proclaimed only one person, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as having an immaculate conception and hence free from original sin. In any event, public policy cannot be founded on theological claims to innocence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It seems unusual to see a Protestant arguing from a Catholic standpoint. Although I don\u2019t know that many Catholic theologians who would say that because a preborn baby has been conceived with Original Sin, her life should not be protected.\u00a0 Our society does not enforce the death penalty lightly, and condemning a preborn baby to die for having Original Sin goes against both the Christian \u201cGolden Rule\u201d and the physicians\u2019 ethic of “Do No Harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swomley\u2019s argument would also justify infanticide. A baby outside the womb would still be considered to have \u201cOriginal Sin\u201d until baptism, in many faith traditions. Therefore, prior to the moment when the priest or pastor pours water on the child\u2019s forehead (or baptizes him some other way) it would be permissible to kill the\u00a0child.<\/p>\n

Also, unless we single out Original Sin as the only type of sin that justifies murdering the sinner, no one would have a right to life because by the standards of modern Christianity, all human beings are sinners. Even by the standards of common sense, if the baby cannot be considered innocent, the rest of humanity certainly cannot be considered innocent either.<\/p>\n

Finally, Swomley says that \u201cpublic policy cannot be founded on theological claims to innocence.\u201d Yet he has no problem justifying abortion with his own theological claim to guilt. His argument is self-refuting because he starts out by making a theological argument, and then says that theological arguments should not be used in the abortion debate, at least not to condemn abortion. Perhaps he is claiming that theological arguments can only be used by the pro-abortion side. This is inconsistent, arbitrary, and unfair.<\/p>\n

Swomley has another argument against regarding preborn babies as innocent:<\/p>\n

There is another meaning of \u201cinnocence\u201d which comes from two Latin words, in (not) and nocere (to harm), and therefore means \u201cnot harmful or dangerous.\u201d However, it is precisely the fact that some pregnant women (and their physicians) view the fetus as harmful or threatening to their health or welfare and hence leads them to consider abortion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Very few pregnancies are a serious risk to a woman’s\u00a0health, to the extent that her life is in danger. In fact, abortionist Dr. Don Sloan, who has performed for the 20,000 abortions, has said:<\/a><\/p>\n

If a woman with a serious illness- heart disease, say, or diabetes- gets pregnant, the abortion procedure may be as dangerous for her as going through pregnancy \u2026 with diseases like lupus, multiple sclerosis, even breast cancer, the chance that pregnancy will make the disease worse is no greater that the chance that the disease will either stay the same or improve. And medical technology has advanced to a point where even women with diabetes and kidney disease can be seen through a pregnancy safely by a doctor who knows what he\u2019s doing. We\u2019ve come a long way since my mother\u2019s time\u2026.The idea of abortion to save the mothers\u2019 life is something that people cling to because it sounds noble and pure- but medically speaking, it probably doesn\u2019t exist. It\u2019s a real stretch of our thinking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are specialists who can get a woman through pregnancy even when they have a serious illness. The number of women who need to abort to save their lives is minuscule. Legalizing abortion across the board because of this tiny group of women does a great injustice to the vast majority of babies killed for less serious reasons, including convenience.<\/p>\n

In the court case Doe v. Bolton<\/em>, the Supreme Court defined the term \u201chealth\u201d in abortion law extremely broadly to include emotional distress.\u00a0 The presence of a preborn baby in her womb may be upsetting to a woman, but that does not mean that the baby (placed there, in fact, by her own actions) \u00a0is guilty of a capital crime. Some women may be emotionally upset by their pregnancies, but we do not allow people to execute those who upset them.<\/p>\n

Swomley\u2019s arguments are disturbing \u2014 even shocking, considering he is a Christian pastor. But they, like most pro-abortion arguments, it can be refuted with little effort by any ethical person with\u00a0common sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pro-choice Methodist minister John M. Swomley, who was the subject of a LifeNews article in May, attempts to refute the claim that preborn babies are \u201cinnocent.\u201d The argument appeared in a book over a decade old, but it is so strange and disturbing that I\u2019m writing about it now that it has come to my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":64009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nMinister justifies abortion by saying preborn babies have original sin - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/minister-justifies-abortion-saying-preborn-babies-original-sin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Minister justifies abortion by saying preborn babies have original sin - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pro-choice Methodist minister John M. Swomley, who was the subject of a LifeNews article in May, attempts to refute the claim that preborn babies are \u201cinnocent.\u201d The argument appeared in a book over a decade old, but it is so strange and disturbing that I\u2019m writing about it now that it has come to my […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/minister-justifies-abortion-saying-preborn-babies-original-sin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-31T21:33:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-06-01T23:40:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/baby-closeup-sleep-e1432255405596.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"466\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sarah Terzo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sarah Terzo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/minister-justifies-abortion-saying-preborn-babies-original-sin\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/minister-justifies-abortion-saying-preborn-babies-original-sin\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sarah Terzo\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/2f32fb25f4ca350784baf5509b1b6eb2\"},\"headline\":\"Minister justifies abortion by saying preborn babies have original sin\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-31T21:33:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-01T23:40:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/minister-justifies-abortion-saying-preborn-babies-original-sin\/\"},\"wordCount\":874,\"commentCount\":13,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Analysis\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/minister-justifies-abortion-saying-preborn-babies-original-sin\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/minister-justifies-abortion-saying-preborn-babies-original-sin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/minister-justifies-abortion-saying-preborn-babies-original-sin\/\",\"name\":\"Minister justifies abortion by saying preborn babies have original sin - 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