🧵 1/ "Religious people are pro-life, so if you're pro-life you must be religious." This is a bad argument. Let me count you the ways.
2/ First, this is a very common logical misstep called "affirming the consequent" or "converse error." We see a conditional statement ("If you're swimming, you're wet") & incorrectly assume its converse ("If you're wet, you're swimming") must also be true. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirming…
3/ In this context, the conditional statement is "If you're religious, you're pro-life" & the converse is "If you're pro-life, you're religious." You can't assume the converse based on the conditional statement.
4/ Second, in this context, even the original conditional statement ("If you're religious, you're pro-life") is not at all consistently true. For example, Pew finds sig. portions of every religious tradition say abortion should be legal in all/most cases. pewforum.org/religious-land…
5/ It's true that most PL Americans are religious. It's also true most PC Americans are religious. Because most Americans are religious. It doesn't follow that any particular PL or PC person bases her views solely on religion--or on religion at all. pewforum.org/religious-land…
6/ Third, we could instead say PL people are more *likely* to be religious than PC people. Note in the chart above 87% of "illegal in all/most cases" ppl profess a religion compared to only 68% of "legal in all/most cases" ppl.
7/ Here the converse also happens to be true: religious ppl are more *likely* to be PL than non-religious ppl. 63% who attend religious services weekly think abortion should be illegal in all/most cases compared to only 24% who attend seldom/never. pewforum.org/religious-land…
8/ So it's true being pro-life & being religious correlate. This point is more nuanced, though, then insisting a person *must* be religious to be pro-life. We can recognize a general trend and its exceptions at the same time.
9/ For example, of people who think abortion should be illegal in all/most cases, 41% never participate in prayer, scripture study, religious education... pewforum.org/religious-land…
10/ ...17% seldom or never attend religious services... (pewforum.org/religious-land…)
11/ ...and 12% consider themselves unaffiliated with religion...
12/ ...including 4% who are agnostic (not certain god exists) and 2% who are atheist (do not believe in god). (pewforum.org/religious-land…)
13/ Sometimes the people making the original claim will amend it to something like "You may not personally believe in a religion, but you could only be anti-abortion if you've been indoctrinated by the religious society we all live in."
14/ This sounds suspiciously like a non-falsifiable theory: only religious ppl are pro-life so if a non-religious person is pro-life it must be because she's secretly or subconsciously religious. (This claim is similar to saying millions of PL women are internalized misogynists.)
15/ I find most who purport this non-falsifiable theory won't commit to it to the point of claiming Christopher Hitchens was subconsciously religious. blog.secularprolife.org/2020/04/christ…
16/ As another example, Dr. Bernard Nathanson was an atheist and an abortion provider, yet, as he witnessed what was then new ultrasound technology, defected entirely to the pro-life side. bmj.com/rapid-response…
17/ Being pro-life doesn't require religion any more than any other human rights cause. No one claims you need religion to care about the wellbeing of born children, refugees, LGBT folk, people with disabilities, or other marginalized groups. Prenatal children are no exception.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Secular Pro-Life

Secular Pro-Life Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @secularprolife

4 Sep
The Rehumanize Conference is about to start! Especially looking forward to Secular #ProLife's 4pm presentation "Deconstructing Three Myths about Abortion." #Rehumanize2021
We'll be live-tweeting all the abortion-related content, which also includes a "Global Perspectives on Abortion" panel, former PP worker turned whistleblower Mayra Rodriguez, SFLA's Apologetics 101, and (most timely) "Pro-Life Victories in the Law."
@RehumanizeAimee kicking it off with an introduction to radical inclusivity. "Our diversity is a strength, not a weakness."
Read 129 tweets
3 Sep
The pro-choice position requires so many lies to endure:

--embryos don't have hearts
--abortion restrictions don't decrease abortion
--anti-abortion activists are men trying to control women

Regardless of your ethical views, these are *factually false.* But PCers believe them.
Abortion restrictions significantly decrease abortion:
Read 4 tweets
2 Sep
If the Texas heartbeat law stays in place long enough, Texas will likely see an increase in effective contraceptive use and decrease in unintended pregnancies. This correlation has been observed with abortion restrictions before. Sources below. ImageImage
"A state’s antiabortion attitudes, which likely contribute to the enactment of restrictive abortion laws, are a major factor in inducing greater use of highly effective contraceptive methods." Social Science Research, January 2012 sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
"Fewer abortion providers increase the likelihood of women using the pill." The Social Science Journal, March 2014 sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Read 6 tweets
2 Sep
Your resident lawyer Kelsey here. I am going to try my best to explain the Supreme Court's order in the Texas case, subject to revision when I've had more sleep. 🧵
First, it helps to understand what *typically* happens in abortion cases. A pro-life law is enacted, abortion industry interests sue, and the lower (district and circuit) federal courts enjoin (block) enforcement of the law while it works its way through the system.
The Supreme Court does not get involved in the proceedings until much later, if ever.

You can think of this pattern as creating two types of precedent.
Read 10 tweets
13 Aug
🧵 1/ A quick example of the problems with confusing correlation and causation, from this 2020 study: "Unintended pregnancy and abortion by income, region, and the legal status of abortion: estimates from a comprehensive model for 1990-2019" thelancet.com/journals/langl…
2/ We're considering three factors here:

1. Unintended pregnancy (UIP) rates
2. Abortion laws
3. Abortion rates

Higher UIP drive up abortion rates. Stricter abortion laws drive down abortion rates.
3/ So we would expect countries with high UIP and lax abortion laws to have the highest abortion rates and countries with low UIP and strict abortion laws to have the lowest abortion rates.
Read 12 tweets
21 Sep 20
Colorado allows abortion for any reason through all 9 months. Help us change that: blog.secularprolife.org/2020/09/colora… #Yeson115 #DueDateTooLate
Colorado's incredibly lax abortion laws are extreme by both national and international standards: only seven countries in the world allow unrestricted abortion after 20 weeks, including such champions of human rights as Vietnam, North Korea, and China.
This is the company Colorado currently keeps, dramatically out of step with the views and ethics of most of its population.

Late-term abortion is not rare and it's not performed exclusively (or even primarily) for dire medical reasons.
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(