Why are pro-lifers opposed to contraception?1
The implication of this objection is that, if pro-lifers were sincere about wanting to save innocent life, they would focus more attention on the root matter—reducing unplanned pregnancies (the goals we can “all agree on”). In the minds of most pro-choicers, the main way to prevent unplanned pregnancies is by encouraging contraception. Since pro-lifers are rarely at the forefront of the contraception promotion movement, pro-choicers conclude that they must be insincere in their activism. They must not really care about fetuses—they presumably just want to chain women to reproductive duties.
First of all, not all pro-lifers oppose contraception.
Some people who are anti-abortion are strongly pro-contraception. But it is certainly true that many pro-lifers are not advocates of contraceptive use. There are many reasons for this (and, in our opinion, some good ones). Using contraception obviously reduces the likelihood that any given act of intercourse will produce an unwanted pregnancy. Many people believe, however, that encouraging contraception promotes a culture rife with sexual encounters between uncommitted individuals which, in the long run, results in more rather than fewer unwanted pregnancies. This position can be disputed, but we need not defend it here. At the end of the day, even if certain pro-lifers are wrong to frown on contraception, it in no way detracts from the intellectual merit of their arguments about abortion.
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The questions in this section are not intellectual challenges to the pro-life position; rather, they are attacks on pro-lifers’ character. Even if the implications of these attacks were true—that pro-lifers are rude, judgmental, wrong about other issues, and doing nothing to solve the underlying problems that motivate abortion—it would in no wise undermine the philosophical and moral arguments presented here. Fortunately, these attacks are often groundless, so we offer some sample responses. ↩