{"id":91831,"date":"2016-04-05T18:52:27","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T22:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=91831"},"modified":"2016-04-05T20:02:26","modified_gmt":"2016-04-06T00:02:26","slug":"pro-life-activist-stephanie-gray-answers-the-toughest-abortion-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-activist-stephanie-gray-answers-the-toughest-abortion-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-life activist Stephanie Gray answers the toughest abortion questions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Stephanie Gray refers to herself as \u201ca child activist\u201d and with good reason. Born to parents who were both heavily involved in the pro-life movement, Gray grew up attending pro-life rallies, conferences, and abortion facility\u00a0protests. She sat and doodled while her mother counseled girls at a crisis pregnancy center. From a very young age, Gray\u00a0held a deep conviction that abortion was and is a moral crime. She learned early on that it is the duty of people who know this to speak up.<\/p>\n

This early introduction to the evil of abortion lead Gray on a path that included writing pro-life letters to the prime minister of Canada at age 13 and switching her major in college from theater to political science. It was while she was at college that she first heard Scott Klusendorf of Life Training Institute speak.<\/p>\n

Klusendorf said there were more people working full-time to kill babies than there were working full-time to save them. That\u2019s when Gray\u2019s aspirations of working for the pro-life movement became more than a dream, and her adult journey to pro-life speaker, author and activist began. Her latest book “Love Unleashes Life<\/a>” details how pro-lifers can more effectively speak out to save preborn children.<\/p>\n

\"Stephanie

Stephanie Gray<\/p><\/div>\n

In “Love Unleashes Life<\/a>,” Gray discusses how pro-lifers can best argue against pro-abortion reasoning. Two of the toughest pro-abortion arguments that pro-lifers face\u00a0are the “right to a woman\u2019s own body” argument and the “right to abortion” argument when the mother\u2019s health is at risk.<\/p>\n

Bodily autonomy\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I find causes pro-lifers to often pause is the bodily rights argument,\u201d explains Gray. \u201cEven if the fetus or embryo are fully human, fully alive, and fully person, even giving them legal standing, [pro-choicers] argue that abortion is still justified, because even as a living person, you don\u2019t have the right to use another legal person\u2019s body against their will. Therefore, a fetus shouldn\u2019t be allowed to use a woman\u2019s body.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, as Gray points out, parents have a responsibility to their offspring that overrides this argument.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone is starving in my town, although it\u2019s nice if I feed them, I won\u2019t be charged with neglect if I don\u2019t. But if I have my child in my home, I have to feed them. I have a responsibility,\u201d explains Gray. \u201cIt follows that pregnancy is a parent\/child relationship, and if the parent has to feed, clothe, and shelter their born child, they need to feed, clothe, and shelter their preborn child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gray also notes that there\u2019s a major difference between a kidney and the uterus. The uterus, she says, is different from all the other parts of the body, because it doesn\u2019t exist for the woman to live, it exists for the woman\u2019s offspring to live.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough a child cannot claim a right to a parent\u2019s kidney, a preborn child can claim a right to the parent\u2019s uterus,\u201d she said. \u201cThe uterus exists for that child.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"levatino-ad-LAN\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Life of the mother cases<\/strong><\/p>\n

In terms of abortion in cases when the mother\u2019s life or health are at risk, Gray asks one question: \u201cHow is destroying the baby\u2019s body going to address a pathology in the woman\u2019s body?\u201d<\/p>\n

When a woman\u2019s life is in danger, it is the doctor\u2019s responsibility to address her health condition. It is not, she explains, the doctor\u2019s responsibility to kill another human being. Gray gives the example of a woman with cancer. If it is necessary that she has chemotherapy, chemo is not the same as aborting the baby. How the woman is treated for her condition is ethical, as long as it targets the actual health condition, not the baby.<\/p>\n

Pregnancy through sexual violence<\/strong><\/p>\n

As for cases of pregnancy by rape, Gray says we need to begin with sympathy and concern for the victim. We need to agree that an injustice has occurred and that there is a need for more serious consequences for rapists.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it fair to give the death penalty to the innocent child?\u201d she asks. \u201cThe death penalty is usually only permitted when murder has occurred. The rapist isn\u2019t even given the death penalty. We are giving the death penalty to the innocent party, not the guilty one.”<\/p>\n

We also need to acknowledge, she says, that aborting the baby is not going to undo the trauma of rape that has occurred. Instead, abortion creates another victim and harms an innocent person, just as the rape did. We can all agree that this is why we are against rape and why we should also be against abortion.<\/p>\n

Presidential candidates are currently being asked these tough abortion questions. Many of them, even those who call themselves pro-life, are in favor of abortion in these hard cases where the mother is ill, or there has been a rape.<\/p>\n

Abortion and the 2016 elections<\/strong><\/p>\n

The presidential hopefuls are also being asked if they support punishment for women who have abortions after abortion is finally made illegal. This topic has caused a heated debate on both sides of the abortion issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it\u2019s very important that we as pro-lifers be consistent in the position that we hold,\u201d said Gray. \u201cIf preborn children are as human as born children are\u2014if we think that it\u2019s unlawful to kill a born child and people should be punished for it\u2014 why wouldn\u2019t we think, at some future point when it\u2019s unlawful to kill a preborn child, that jail time would also be a possibility?\u201d<\/p>\n

She points out that in cases where a woman is forced to abort, or she is extremely emotionally distraught, punishment may not be in order, just as someone with a mental illness who kills a born child isn\u2019t always held criminally responsible.<\/p>\n