Welcome friends to the Case for Life podcast, where we equip you to defend your pro-life views in the public square. I’m Scott Klusendorf, president of Life Training Institute. You know, often pro-lifers get hit with assertions from critics that are designed to kind of undermine what we’re saying. And one of those is when a critic says to you, oh, you say you’re pro-life and you’re against abortion, but you’re willing to accept abortion to save the life of the mother, there goes your whole case.

And you know, from this podcast that we have said again and again that the three most important words in pro-life, apologetics are. Syllogism Syllogism Syllogism, by which we mean our pro-life case. Premise one. It’s wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being. Premise two. Abortion intentionally kills an innocent human being.

Conclusion, therefore, abortion is wrong. Now, suppose we have a situation, say ectopic pregnancy, for instance, where the embryo implants on the inner wall of the fallopian tube instead of the uterine cavity where it would normally develop and grow without any issue. In the case of ectopic pregnancy, is that embryo grows in the fallopian tube, that narrow tube bleeding down to the uterine cavity.

Very often that pregnancy cannot be managed because what happens is as that embryo grows in that narrow tube, the risk of the mother hemorrhaging to death goes up because it’s possible that tube will rupture as the embryo grows in size. So you’re a pro-life doctor, and you’re presented with a case.

That involves ectopic pregnancy, and it’s a case you can’t manage, meaning you can’t save both lives. You’re going to have to decide, do I act to save one life, even though the unintended but foreseeable result is the death of the embryo, or do I do nothing and let two humans die? What is the pro-life thing to do in that situation?

And my answer is, I’m going to act to save the mother. Now, of course, critics right away go, oh, there you go. You just justified abortion. No, let’s go back to my syllogism. We did not argue that it’s always wrong to end a pregnancy. We argued premise one. It is wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being.

Is our intent in this case to kill the embryo? No, it’s not. Our intent is to save the mother. By doing so, we foresee the death of the embryo. Who by the way, we can’t save anyway. The embryo will die in the tube. It will die if we remove him. The only question here now becomes, does the mother die too? Or do we do the greatest moral good we can, which is to save her, save the one life We have the ability to save rather than let two die in acting to save the mother.

I am not intending the death of the embryo, for example, a general and a just war. Can foresee the deaths of innocent civilians, but he does not intend them in prosecuting an end to a just war. He will drop bombs on military targets that could result in civilian deaths. It can happen. He knows it can happen, but he doesn’t set out to intentionally kill civilians.

Their deaths are foreseen. They are not intended. Likewise, when you have a morally. Serious situation, like the need to save the life of the one human being you can in acting to save that life. In the case of ectopic pregnancy, we do not intend the death of the embryo. Our intent is to save the mother. We, we foresee the death, of course, but that’s different than intending it.

With abortion, we not only foresee the death of the innocent human being. We intend it. That’s our goal. You perform the abortion to kill the embryo or fetus. That’s not what’s happening with ectopic pregnancy. So when people try to say to you, Hey. In acting to save the mother’s life. In atopic pregnancy, you just justified abortion.

There goes your whole case. That is simply not true. You’re acting to save the one life you can. I can also argue that in removing the embryo from the fallopian tube, I have not made him worse. Off. He will die in that tube. He will die if I remove him. But just because I don’t have a rescue plan for the embryo does not mean I’ve acted inappropriately in removing him.

Maybe technology one day will catch up to where we are able to save these pregnancies, but right now we can’t. So the choice in front of us is very simple. We either act to save the one life we can or we do nothing. In many cases and let the mother die too. A good physician, of course, will be concerned about both as patients and he or she will do what they can to manage the pregnancy if it can be managed, but it can’t always be managed.

There are times when the only solution is to end the pregnancy and save the one life you can that being the mothers, and that would be the pro-life thing to do. Thanks for joining us again. Please visit us on our social media site. Scottcluesendorf.com Caseforlife.com, or visit us at PROLIFETRAINING.COM for Life Training Institute.

Until next time, we’ll see you then.