Support a Liberal Issue

In his article, 'The Liberal Case Against Abortion', Vasu Murti considers the history of U.S. legislation through the 1960's and notes that laws against abortion emerged from the medical field, not from religious groups. Quoting Dr. Bernard Nathansan he writes: "The U.S. statutes against abortion have a non-sectarian history. They were put on the books when Catholics were a politically insignificant minority...even the Protestant clergy was not a major factor in these laws. Rather, the laws were an achievement of the American Medical Association."

In 1970 the Journal of the California State Medical Association wrote: "The very considerable semantic gymnastics which are required to rationalize abortion as anything but taking a human life would be ludicrous if they were not put forth under socially impeccable auspices."

While often characterized as a religious issue, Murti points out that the basic principles identifying the beginning of human life are all secular. In the end, while the promotion of rights can be challenging, it is the task of a progressive society:

Recognizing the rights of another class of beings limits our freedoms and our choices and requires a change in our lifestyle—the abolition of (human) slavery is a good example of this . . . One could argue, therefore—apart from religion—that recognizing the rights of the human unborn, like the rights of blacks, women, lesbians and gays, children, animals and the environment, is a sign of secular social progress.