Progress on Pro-Life Research

I am (currently) creating a motion poster series for moderate pro-life supporters, or those who believe in few exceptions for abortion, to understand the impact on women’s bodily autonomy with abortion restrictions within the United States.

So far in my research, I have found repetition of separate reasons on pro-life and pro-choice stances. Almost every article reads that pro-life supporters defend the unborn child’s life and their right to life/bodily autonomy is greater than that of pregnant women’s right to bodily autonomy. Obviously pro-choice defends the women’s right to bodily autonomy over an unborn life.

There is some middle ground that I have yet to figure out how to dive into deeper. Moderate pro-life supporters believe that there are few exceptions in which abortion should be legal, including rape and incest primarily. What confuses me is how this contradicts the stance of the fetus having more bodily autonomy than the pregnant woman and that pro-life supporters do not understand or even recognize in many cases that it is a contradiction. You cannot say “women do not have bodily autonomy over a fetus’s life” if that fetus’s by rape or incest automatically changes women’s bodily autonomy. At this point, why wouldn’t they just be pro-choice?

I’m trying to make sense of this: how moderate pro-life supporters do not see the contradiction in their exceptions to outlaw abortion, but also why they believe that outlawing abortions is the right course of action to govern our society when there is ample proof everywhere on how it makes society worse.

I still need to collect multiple sources on my already-learned insight on problems that come with abortion bans. Collecting stories on women’s separate experiences with abortion could be of benefit to better understand what they go through. I still plan to eventually visit a Clinic, Planned Parenthood, and/or Crisis Centers to try and talk with some of the people who can personally voice their opinions and experience to better understand pro-life perspectives and streams of consciousness.

My research this week started me in discovering how specifically moderate pro-life supporters are contradictory in their beliefs. This will help me to better understand how to appeal to their ethos and pathos for my capstone. It also helped me to narrow my audience a bit more, as extreme pro-lifers typically cannot be reasoned with, whereas someone who is more in the middle and allowing for exceptions of abortion might be convinced how their beliefs support pro-choice more than they initially thought.

I would prefer personally to read articles and watch educational videos on the pro-choice stance, but articles, tiktoks, podcasts, and blogs have been the most helpful so far. I find it difficult in some moments to continue to listen to pro-life podcasts for long periods of time, as I find myself yelling into the void how they aren’t considerate of the woman despite their belief that they are.

I hope to continue to make sense as to what drives moderate pro-life supporters to believe that they are make the right societal decision to ban abortions… although I am terrified I will predominantly find the Christian god as their motive.