We write in reply to the AU STAND Coalition and its Nov. 1 letter.
American University is a home for students who love the world and want to make it a better place. We are some of the most forward-looking students in the country. We recognize trends before others do. Students for Life honors this progressive spirit when we claim that abortion is a form of genocide.
Genocide can be broadly defined as violence resulting from the dehumanization of a class of people in a society. In past and current cases, the class of people has been determined by race, ethnicity or religious conviction. We argue that the systemic acceptance and promotion of abortion as a legitimate, though violent and deadly choice of action toward unborn humans, results from dehumanization of the unborn child and is a case of genocide.
An unborn child is in fact a biological human being that is at an immature stage of its self-directed process of growth — a stage each of us once occupied. The unborn are discriminated against because of their age and level of development. The pro-choice view claims that the killing of an unborn child — a form of deliberate homicide — is morally equivalent to the choice to care for that child. This view is discriminatory and dehumanizing. It cannot be held without denying human rights to an entire class of people.
Abortion in America is not a rare emergency medical procedure. Over 50,000,000 living human beings have been killed in our country since the 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade. A society that claims to be liberal and enlightened — one that is proud of overcoming slavery and ending the Shoah — should not stand for abortion.
Abortion always kills, and our society only allows it to do so because we have dehumanized the unborn. Students for Life sees this as an outrage that fits the intention of the original definition of genocide, while expanding the concept to include a previously unrecognized group of victims.
Humbly, AU Students for Life
