An irrepressible conflict

It's a disturbing trend I've seen recently that in pro-choice rhetoric, pregnancy is commonly likened to slavery. 

Pro-choice ideology claims that women are oppressed by their babies, that pro-life people want to exert control over vulnerable women's bodies, and that anyone who defends life is essentially a modern-day slaveholder. There has never been anything more ironic than this ludicrous erroneous comparison. The abortion industry vilifies children and embraces the destruction of vulnerable innocents for the cause of convenience; that, in itself, is the definition of oppression and exploitation. 

It is, in fact, the logic of the abortion-defender that most closely resembles that of America's pro-slavery champions in the 1800s. 

Let's compare the two, shall we?

Pro-choice argument: Fetuses are sub-human, pre-human, not "people." They cannot speak, cannot hear, cannot see, cannot (up to a certain point) feel pain, and cannot form memories. They are unaware of their surroundings. Humans in the early stages of development are not as worthy of protection as adult humans, or even newborn infants. 

Slavery rhetoric: Slaves (i.e. Black people) are not fully realized persons. They have low moral intelligence and are uncivilized, unteachable, and brutish. Therefore, their lives are less valuable inherently than white lives, and they were destined to be subordinated. 

"In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life..." -James Henry Hammond, 1858

Pro-choice: The woman has authority over her own body, which includes the fetus inside her, and it is not immoral to use that authority however she pleases. The fetus is utterly dependent on its mother for life. The woman's power is an asset to her; it gives her permission, even the right, to dominate the fetus.

Slavery: The white slave owner has been given authority by God and by law over slaves' bodies, and so he is justified in using them however he pleases. His power, intelligence, and capacity give him the right to dominate lesser beings and "civilize" them.

"[The freed slave] would become an insufferable burden to society. Society has the right to prevent this, and can only do so by subjecting him to domestic slavery... We would remind those who deprecate and sympathize with negro slavery, that his slavery here... christianizes, protects, supports and civilizes him; that it governs him far better than free laborers at the North are governed." -George Fitzhugh

Pro-choice: Abortion is not murder. Murder is illegal. Abortion can't be called murder because it is legal and embedded in our society's way of life.

Slavery: Slavery is legal and embedded in the social structure of the United States and the world. Because it is widely accepted, it must not be immoral.

"...A race inferior to her own, but eminently qualified in temper, in vigor, in docility, in capacity to stand the climate, to answer all her purposes. We use them for our purpose, and call them slaves. We found them slaves by the common 'consent of mankind...'" -James Henry Hammond, 1858

Pro-choice: Unwanted fetuses will have difficult lives if carried to term and given up for adoption. It's better for them to be destroyed rather than suffer a life of poverty and adversity.

Slavery: If slaves are freed, where will they go? They do not have the skills or the capacity to care for themselves or build a quality life. It's better for them to stay enslaved, safe and provided for, than to be turned out into the street to fend for themselves.

"He the Negro is but a grown up child, and must be governed as a child, not as a lunatic or criminal. The master occupies toward him the place of parent or guardian... We presume the maddest abolitionist does not think the negro's providence of habits and money-making capacity at all to compare to those of the whites." -George Fitzhugh

Pro-choice: Abortion is a positive good--good for the mother and good for the unwanted fetus. Abortion relieves mothers of emotional hardship, financial burden, and social stigma, and saves the fetus from life in an unfair world. 

Slavery: Slavery is a positive good. It benefits masters economically and socially, and slaves are elevated by their usefulness to white people and their separation from their cultural roots. 

"But let me not be understood as admitting, even by implication, that the existing relations between the two races in the slaveholding States is an evil:–far otherwise; I hold it to be a good, as it has thus far proved itself to be to both, and will continue to prove so if not disturbed by the fell spirit of abolition... Never before has the black race of Central Africa... attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually." -John C. Calhoun

"... our slaves are hired for life and well compensated; there is no starvation, no begging, no want of employment among our people, and not too much employment either... They are elevated from the condition in which God first created them, by being made our slaves." -James Henry Hammond, 1858*

Pro-life advocates assert that none of this is true; all human beings are of equal inherent value, regardless of developmental stage, ability, or suffering, and abortion is an abomination because it destroys an innocent person and allows those with less power to be dominated by those with more. Likening pro-life people to slaveholders is like calling Frederick Douglass a racist.

In 1858, William Seward described the tension between abolitionists and pro-slavery forces as an "irrepressible conflict." Whether he meant the words to be prophetic or not, he discerned that things in the slavery debate could not continue the same way without boiling over. 

To my pro-choice friends: I love you. My intent in writing this isn't to declare war on you, but
to expose the lies we're being told by the abortion industry, and to ask you, boldly: when the lines have been drawn, on which side would you rather find yourself? It's not too late to start listening to the truth.

The time to choose is now. We are approaching another crossroads in our history--much like America in 1860, headed toward the emancipation of the slaves through Civil War--a crux in another "irrepressible conflict" between life and death, freedom and oppression. Those who plant themselves in opposition to the cause of life will one day find themselves relegated forever to the company of slaveholders, Nazis, and tyrants, their cheaply bought glory tarnished, and their names forgotten.

But we, the defenders of life, will find ourselves encouraged, strengthened, approved by God, and celebrated by future generations of free people.

*There is a plethora of sources on this subject. I used three of the most well-known pro-slavery speeches from the time period, but if you know how to work Google or the Library of Congress website, you can find many more.