In 2019, Caitlyn Flanagan published a noteworthy article about abortion that recognized that most “arguments” about the legality of abortion are dishonest. Most of these “arguments” have zero chance of moving a person on the other side of the issue to a new understanding or a new position. Most such “arguments” fail because they refuse to give the other side its best foot forward. They are worse than straw man arguments or least charitable readings. They are like athletic competitions where only one team takes the field. Most of these “arguments” are thus political rants and rallying cries, not good faith discussions.
Here is an excerpt from Flanagan’s excellent article, titled “THE DISHONESTY OF THE ABORTION DEBATE: Why we need to face the best arguments from the other side”:
The argument for abortion, if made honestly, requires many words: It must evoke the recent past, the dire consequences to women of making a very simple medical procedure illegal. The argument against it doesn’t take even a single word. The argument against it is a picture.
This is not an argument anyone is going to win. The loudest advocates on both sides are terrible representatives for their cause. When women are urged to “shout your abortion,” and when abortion becomes the subject of stand-up comedy routines, the attitude toward abortion seems ghoulish. Who could possibly be proud that they see no humanity at all in the images that science has made so painfully clear? When anti-abortion advocates speak in the most graphic terms about women “sucking babies out of the womb,” they show themselves without mercy. They are not considering the extremely human, complex, and often heartbreaking reasons behind women’s private decisions. The truth is that the best argument on each side is a damn good one, and until you acknowledge that fact, you aren’t speaking or even thinking honestly about the issue. You certainly aren’t going to convince anybody. Only the truth has the power to move.
Photo Credit: Creative Commons with permission by Mark Baylor
