The number one reason for abortion is poverty. So if we can eliminate poverty then you will see a vast decline in abortions
Dude,
I think you're a nice guy, but I'm going to have to go after this particular argument you pose.
We hear this argument repeated often, but repetition doesn't make a thing true.
Therefore, if you want to state this proposition as a truth, you'll need to support this proposition with evidence.
1. Please give PROOF and EVIDENCE that the #1 cause of abortion is poverty.
You'll need to do more than repeat things that are commonly repeated, you'll need to give actual data, corroborated data, from reliable sources.
2. Your proof and evidence will have to go beyond statistics that simply show "mostly poor people do it", because that is NOT enough to show an ORDER OF CAUSATION... you will need to show DIRECT CAUSATION.
It's probably not enough to show any causation of any kind, but it certainly isn't enough to show the order of causation.
I could just as easily say poor people have more abortions because poor people lack education, and because they lack education they are more prone to believe all the nonsense spouted by the abortion clinics... and therefore, it isn't really "poverty" that leads to higher rates of abortion, but that the cause is "LACK OF EDUCATION", or "TOO MANY ABORTION CLINICS IN POOR NEIGHBORHOODS", or "MOST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD ARE POOR AND SO NATURALLY MOST ABORTIONS ARE BY POOR PEOPLE"... or any number of other things.
3. Finally, even if poverty CAN BE shown as the direct cause of abortion rates, Jesus said it's impossible to eliminate poverty, so it seems untenable for you to pose a solution which Jesus himself said was impossible.
Mat 26:11 For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. Jesus talked about helping the poor, and having compassion on them... he never talked once about eliminating poverty. And if you think about it, no matter how you define poverty, totally eliminating poverty,as long as mankind has any kind of freedom, is just logically impossible.
Eliminating poverty, in a free society, is logically impossible.
- You can't force anyone to work.
- you can't force anyone to cash a check, or spend their money, or spend it on anything sensible.
- You can't force anyone to see the doctor even if they have free health care.
- You can't force anyone to buy groceries, or buy healthy groceries, or even eat at all.
- You can't force anyone to stay in a decent home where it's sensible to live.
- You can't stop all the mental disorders that make people poor and homeless and crazy.
- Even if you hand everyone a check ---- that doesn't necessarily stop any of their problems... they could still live without a home, they could still spend money on drugs instead of food, they could still be too crazy to take care of themselves, they could spend all their money on lottery tickets or horse races and still remain poor, and to perfectly realistic they could just chew up the check and swallow it because they like the taste... as long as people have freedom to choose, you cannot MAKE THEM choose anything. So you cannot FORCE people away from either poverty or bad judgement.
It is logically impossible to eliminate poverty in a society with any freedoms.
But we are still commanded to have compassion, and help them.
Conclusion:
A. First you'll have to prove there really IS correlation between poverty and abortion rates.
B. Then you will have to show there is DIRECT CAUSALITY... and since correlation doesn't equal causation... this is going to be very difficult for you.
C. You have to conclusively prove everything above before you can make the assertion that "eliminating poverty will lower abortion rates"
D. Then you'll have to deal with the scripture where Jesus claims eliminating poverty is IMPOSSIBLE, not to mention my simple logical proofs against it... so you're left with a conclusion which you cannot biblically, or logically, conclude.
* It seems to me your argument fails at every single point.
Dude,
I think this particular argument you're making is a bad argument.
I think you're making this argument with perfectly good intentions, and with a good heart.
I just think it's a bad argument.