emilye:

“Opposition to abortion need not be based on religious views. The most fundamental reason why abortion is wrong is that it is contrary to the principle of the natural equality of all human beings. This principle is not religious; in fact, it lies at the foundation of our form of government. Of course it is possible to state and defend the pro-life view using religious terms, so that it seems as though the view necessarily has religious content, e.g. someone might argue that all of us are children of God, or made in the image of God, or the property of God, or that life is a gift of God, so that as a consequence abortion is very wrong. But the pro-life view can be more than adequately stated using moral principles that are generally accepted and which even seem to be fundamental in a free and democratic society. The pro-life view may instructively be compared with the civil rights movement in this respect: many of the leaders of the civil rights movement were Christian ministers who argued against segregation and discrimination on religious grounds. Nevertheless, the reforms they were urging could be defended also on non-religious grounds. In general, religious people understand justice religiously; non-religiously people understand it non-religiously. But what counts as justice is the same for both.” — Professor Michael Pakaluk

(via abolishabortion)