There are few names in conservatism with larger platforms than Steven Crowder with his Mug Club. What is possibly the best form of entry level content for conservatism targeting the key demographic audience for the entertainment industry, many begin their journey to the right because of Crowder and this is to his credit. His Change My Minds were revolutionary in both the meme culture and in demonstrating the inability of leftist to rationally articulate their emotionally driven positions on a given issue.
However in response to the leaked Supreme Court ruling, Steven Crowder articulated various falsehoods with regards to abortion, which often is due to his adoption of various feminists tropes that have unfortunately infiltrated the pro-life movement. The following are based on misconceptions Crowder assumes regarding abortion that were stated on show dated May 3rd. His comments were made behind a paywall. Nevertheless, he has articulated these sentiments before, and it is an opportune time to refute them.
Myth 1: Women are Victims of Abortion
Women are not victims of abortion—the child they murder is. Just because the abortion industry is predatory does not make their clientele victims. That is like claiming a drug addict is a victim simply because dealers target them while ignoring the crimes committed by the addict. Disease or choice, people have agency in their decisions, and in this transaction, they are not victims because of their circumstance.
Even if it is a case of rape or incest, a woman is not a victim when she undergoes an abortion. She might be a victim in the circumstances leading up to it, but that victimhood does not extend to the transaction of murdering the child. Sin begets more sin, unless stopped. Someone sinning against a woman does not grant permission for the woman to sin against the child.
Myth 2: Women Do Not Know What They Are Doing
Ignorantia juris non excusat—or in English, Ignorance of the Law is not an excuse. We know this from Romans 1 that God’s Natural Law is transcribed into Man’s heart, so we are without excuse in our sins. The truth is that women know what they are doing when they procure an abortion. They know sex leads to pregnancy and that pregnancy is the biological function of reproduction. Therefore, they know that they are slaughtering the child within them during an abortion or otherwise thwarting this biological function that produces new life. This is because, for whatever reason, they do not want the life to be born.
Crowder has a tendency to articulate that woman do not know that the baby inside the womb is a life. Doing many Change My Mind segments, his opponents will often utilize the argument of viability, which Crowder subsequently points out is an inconsistent standard. However, this does not mean these people are ignorant of the life question as this is their attempt to rationalize their support for abortion. The lesson from his segments is not that compromises can be made, but that the logical implications of being pro-infanticide will always devolve into at least one of the following: the mother determines when life begins, or the needs of the mother outweigh that of the child. In the former, the life question is punted to the individual in a position of absolute relative morality. In the latter, the life question is entirely disregarded. Every one of his opponents eventually articulates one of these two root arguments, because it is not about logic or reason, but emotion and rationalization. Moreover, in articulating their views, they typically end up arguing for abortion up until nine months as there is no tenable standards in between which can be logically defended.
Jeff Durbin, of Apologia, runs the ministry End Abortion Now. EAN is the ministry that equips churches to have their own on-the-ground abortion ministries—that is they train the people that stand outside the abortion mills. In an interview with Right Response Ministry, Durbin explained that those who claim women are acting in ignorance have never stood outside an abortion factory. These people know what they are doing. Crowder is attempting to soften the reality of their sin in an effort to appease or make palatable the pro-life position. Saving innocent life does not need to be made more palatable nor should we allow ignorance as an excuse where there is none.
Myth 3: Conservatives Do Not Want to Criminalize Abortion
This is a lie. For starters, we here at Evangelical Dark Web do. Theonomists do, as they seek to impose some degree of God’s moral law upon the society. Just because the Fox News and Daily Wire types are not truly conservatives does not mean there is not a sizable portion on the right which seeks to criminalize abortion, even for the mother. Denial or downplaying of this is simply gatekeeping. At this juncture, it is not politically palatable for the masses, nor are the state delegates motivated to penalize the mother only to have it struck down by leftist courts. Regardless, this should be the eventual goal, as there is no logical means by which to criminalize the abortionist without penalizing the mother, because if abortion is murder, then the mother is complicit in the murder. Therefore, she should be punished according to the law.
Nevertheless, states had laws criminalizing abortion, as was longstanding tradition. As Justice Alito wrote in his leaked opinion overturning Roe v Wade:
The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions. On the contrary, an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of the common law until 1973.
Alito suggests that abortion was rightfully criminalized in line with the American tradition, as was sodomy, which Crowder is also against proscribing. Nevertheless, in order to fully overturn the impacts of Roe v. Wade, criminalizing abortion is necessary.
To soft peddle the movement to fully abolish and criminalize abortion undercuts the end goals of the movement and disregards God’s righteous standards. Worst of all, it accepts the aforementioned myths surrounding abortion that feminist in the pro-life movement propagate.
Conclusion
Abolishing abortion cannot stop by the overture of Roe v Wade. The states must then enforce these restrictions, shutter the Planned Parenthoods, and outlaw mail-in abortions. Laws like the Texas Heartbeat Law, which deputize citizens to enforce the law through the courts, must be applied to those assisting the women who travel across state lines, as these facilitators have deeper pockets than the women themselves.
Plenty on the right made noise over Disney’s child grooming, vowing boycotts. But will they be willing to take the fight to Apple, Amazon, Salesforce, Uber, Lyft, Citigroup, and others who have vowed to fund transportation across state lines in what I have termed Abortion Arbitrage?
Complete abolition is the goal. The war does not end until that is achieved. Crowder accepts too many liberal premises, which are themselves rooted in feminism. For a commentator who wears his faith publicly, he should align his views with His views, which are supported by both Church history and the American tradition.
One Response
Here, here!