HUMAN life is sacrosanct, although it may depend on which human you're talking about. No person would claim to place a higher premium on life than a pro-life advocate. Many people sincerely believe life begins at conception and that the fetus, an innocent life, should be protected. Essentially, they believe a child aborted is a child murdered. If one believes life begins at conception, this is the logicaly moral position to take and also one that pro-choice activists find quite difficult to counter. But their moral consistency starts to dissipate when we look at the numbers of innocent Iraqi civilians killed by the ongoing conflict and the pro-life contingent of the conservative coalition that supports it.
According to the United Nations, more than 36,000 Iraqi civilians died in 2006 alone as a result of continued American military presence. On average, 94 Iraqis died every day that year. Conservative studies put the total death toll of Iraqi civilians at 100,000, although it is impossible to know anywhere near the exact number. Often American soldiers will extract bodies from sewers and garbage dumps. Hospitals overflow.
Many Americans, or at least the few who still support the war, call these innocent deaths "collateral damage." It's the price Iraq pays for its freedom, they say. Are not abortions the price we pay for bad sex education, dismal living situations in cities and heat-of-the moment mistakes? Maybe abortions are simply collateral damage of bad public policy choices.
Of course this is a callous and dismissive way to talk about human life. But it highlights the inconsistencies in some Americans' moral reasoning. Many evangelical hawks continue to full-throatedly support the suicide mission in Iraq. Why, it is no longer clear. It makes no sense to dismiss an Iraqi's life while bemoaning the supposed senselessness of aborting a fetus. An Iraqi's innocent life is as sacred as the fetus in an American mother's womb.
Pro-life advocates seem so asinine sometimes because they place a higher value on a nearly invisible tiny being rather than living, breathing adults and children. Most of the religious right -- basically the only ones left supporting the Bush doctrine -- supports the war, where almost a hundred innocent people die every day. Assuming this war were winnable, many people would accept readily that a democratic Iraq would be worth the lives lost. Moral inconsistencies arise when these lives lost aren't garnering even a second thought, especially when mounting evidence from experts argues that this war cannot be won. For example, William Odom, a retired lieutenant general, former director of the National Security Agency and now a Yale professor, has commented that the Iraq invasion might be the worst strategic mistake in American history. Retired Marine Corps general Anthony Zinni criticized the Bush administration for "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility."
Perhaps it is difficult for Americans to feel the same level of emotion about the death of an Iraqi as compared to the sadness felt with the loss of another American life. Regardless of what cosmopolitans say, proximity matters. It would be emotionally exhausting to mourn the loss of every sick child, every AIDS victim, and every person who dies from hunger. Humans simply cannot fathom the horrors and unfairness of this world. But our moral responsibility as citizens of a democracy increases tremendously when American policy leads to the death of innocent people.
It seems to me that if a person calls him or herself pro-life, he or she should be an advocate of lives outside of the womb as well. Americans horrified by abortion should shudder just as much with the news of another Iraqi innocent killed by shrapnel. And when this isn't the case, when evangelical Americans ambivalently watch the death toll rise, theirmoral high ground in domestic policy debates disappears.
So, here's an unlikely exhortation from a proud pro-choice advocate: Pro-lifers, stand up for your beliefs and join the ever-expanding coalition against the immoral war in Iraq.
Marta Cook is a Cavalier Daily Associate Editor. She can be reached at mcook@cavalierdaily.com.
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