Arguing Against Abortion

A recent inquiry from a college instructor in search of philosophical arguments on the morality of abortion inspired us to compile the below list of resources, which, though far from comprehensive, may be of use to pro-lifers. I’ve sorted the list by type of resource.

Free online articles:

• ” Equal Rights, Unequal Wrongs ” by Christopher Kaczor ( First Things , August/September 2011)
• ” Embryology: Inconvenient Facts ” by William L. Saunders, Jr. ( First Things , December 2004)
• ” Dualistic Delusions ” by Patrick Lee and Robert P. George ( First Things , February 2005)
• “ Embodied Equality: Debunking Equal Protection Arguments for Abortion Rights ” (PDF via SSRN) by Erika Bachiochi ( Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy , Vol. 34, No. 3, Summer 2011)
• ” Acorns and Embryos ” by Robert P. George and Patrick Lee ( The New Atlantis , No. 7, Fall 2004/Winter 2005)
• ” Suffer the Violinist: Why the Pro-Abortion Argument from Bodily Autonomy Fails ” (PDF) by Richard J. Poupard ( Christian Research Journal , Vol. 40, No. 4 , 2007)
• ” The Wrong of Abortion ” (PDF) by Patrick Lee and Robert P. George (from Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics , edited by Andrew I. Cohen and Christopher Wellman, Blackwell Publishers, 2005)
• ” Why Abortion Is Immoral ” (PDF) by Don Marquis ( Journal of Philosophy , Vol. 86, April 1989)
• ” Human Personhood Begins at Conception ” by Peter Kreeft (originally published by the Castello Institute as a Medical Ethics Policy Monograph, 1997)
• ” I Was Once a Fetus: An Identity-Based Argument Against Abortion ” by Alexander R. Pruss

Books:

• Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice by Francis J. Beckwith (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
• The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture by Scott Klusendorf (Crossway, 2009)
• Embryo: A Defense of Human Life (second edition) by Robert P. George and Christopher Tollefsen (The Witherspoon Institute, 2011)
• The Ethics of Abortion: Women’s Rights, Human Life, and the Question of Justice by Christopher Kaczor (Routledge, 2010)
• Abortion & Unborn Human Life (second edition) by Patrick Lee (Catholic University of America Press, 2010)

Scholarly articles (limited access):

• ” The Rights and Wrongs of Abortion: A Reply to Judith Thomson ” by John Finnis ( Philosophy & Public Affairs , Vol. 2, No. 2, Winter 1973)
• ” Personal Bodily Rights, Abortion, and Unplugging the Violinist ” by Francis J. Beckwith ( International Philosophical Quarterly , Vol. 32, No. 1, March 1992)

You can find more helpful resources on the blog Pro-Life Philosophy , on the blog of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, and on this page compiled by Princeton Pro-Life, all of which I used in putting together this post. And many of the people cited above have written other books or articles on abortion that I omitted here for the sake of space. Feel free to provide more suggestions in the comment box.