May 30, 2023
by Micol Collins
I was listening to my favorite music on the radio when an ad began streaming. The ad started telling the audience that it was okay to not like a particular flavor of ice cream, a job, etc. Quickly, it escalated to include the fact that it was not ok that I could not decide what to do with my body when it came to pregnancy, and that it was okay whether I did not want a child or did not want to be a mother “ever”. As I related what I had heard to my husband, he stated in disbelief, “They’re equating throwing away a child with throwing away a food one does not like?” He himself could not believe the assertion made in the advertisement.
Planned Parenthood’s hashtag “WhateverTheReason” seeks to send the message that all reasons for abortions are equally deserving of respect. If “respect” means that any reason for an abortion deserves applause, thumbs up, and imitation, then no, not every reason or motive is worth respect. If any motive was equally respectable, then any reason for hurting someone would deserve protection and a “way to happen” without impunity. What would that mean for all of us? None of us would feel safe, and we would always be watching our backs from people that deem whatever reason justifiable to end a life. Such a conclusion is the making of a criminal mind.
One may wonder whether there are respectable reasons for abortion. Rather than debate the idea, pro-choice advocates have deemed all motives equally justifiable. Yet, we have already established that to agree with that statement is to destroy the purposes of the justice system and to decriminalize harm in the name of whatever reason. Those who are inspiring such ideas well fit the mental paradigm of a criminal mind. In a keynote conference speech, Jordan Petersen explained that criminal minds justify taking advantage of others and despise a variety of civic virtues and their correlated practices such as trustworthiness, commitment, fidelity, and integrity, which are all features, for example, of cohabitation. The best civic virtuosos cannot justify taking advantage of others for their own gain, dishonesty, infidelity, irresponsibility, etc., and from such individuals one can safely expect no disrespectable action. Safety is the assurance granted by those who live the best civic virtues to all in their society. So, best virtues cannot justify their hashtag “WhateverTheReason”.
There are social forces today who are appealing to the worst in humans. However, the best humans are those who have interiorized the best civic virtues. To be pro-life is altruistic, self-less, and honorable precisely because of what that choice implies, that such a human who is pro-life is safe to be around to.
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Micol Collins is currently in her senior year at BYU-Idaho. She plans to graduate in the Fall of 2023 with a degree in Marriage and Family Studies, and then obtain a Master’s in Public Administration. She enjoys writing music, hiking, fishing, playing basketball and just staying active with her children and husband. She and her husband are the parents of three children.