Pro-abortion professor says it’s okay that abortion could’ve killed my son

David Boonin  is a pro-choice philosophy professor who wrote the book A Defense of Abortion.  The book is dedicated to supporting and promoting legalized abortion. However, there is something very telling in its introduction. Boonin says:

In the top drawer of my desk, I keep [a picture of my son]. This picture was taken on September 7, 1993, 24 weeks before he was born. The sonogram image is murky, but it reveals clear enough a small head tilted back slightly, and an arm raised up and bent, with the hand pointing back toward the face and the thumb extended out toward the mouth. There is no doubt in my mind that this picture, too, shows [my son] at a very early stage in his physical development. And there is no question that the position I defend in this book entails that it would have been morally permissible to end his life at this point.

Such honesty from a pro-choice activist is rare. (Although not unheard of – I wrote an article containing quotes from pro-choice leaders and activists admitting the baby in the womb is a human life here.)

It is remarkable that Boonin could write an entire book defending something that he concedes could’ve taken the life of his own child. Somehow, the ultrasound picture of his own baby doesn’t sway him. Instead, he defends putting to death babies at the same age as his child in the picture. He shows a shocking disregard for life as he accepts that someone could have chosen to end the life of his son- and he is perfectly ok with that.

Pro-lifers often find abortion supporters who admit abortion takes a life hard to understand and debate with. How do you address abortion’s legality when a person acknowledges that abortion is killing but just doesn’t care? This level of cold heartedness seems overwhelming. What a pro-choice person concedes pro-life points about the beginning of life but still advocates killing, it can be hard to know what to say next. Often, changing the person’s heart is beyond the capabilities of a pro-lifer. It is hard to manufacture compassion in the hardened heart of another person.

Boonin’s position clearly shows the moral bankruptcy of the pro-choice stand. The belief that life is expendable and can be destroyed for another person’s convenience is the crux of the pro-choice position, whether pro-choice activists admit it or not. Like nothing else, reading this kind of admission helps pro-lifers realize we are truly standing against an evil ideology.