It’s important to understand that no one person or organization “owns” the pro-life movement. In fact, the pro-life movement belongs to those affected by it most: the children killed by abortion.
People can and will fail and fall. Some will disappoint us and abandon us. Some will alienate us and some will oppose us. But at the end of the day, the movement belongs to none of us. When someone drops the ball, there must be someone to step up in their place. Even if some among us behave inappropriately—or wrongly—doesn’t diminish the message and the movement.
In fact, attempting to undermine a movement by pointing to the inconsistent actions of some of its members is a fallacious argument: Tu quoque.
Tu quoque (/tuːˈkwoʊkwiː/;[1]Latin for “you, too” or “you, also”) or the appeal to hypocrisy is an informal logical fallacy that intends to discredit the validity of the opponent’s logical argument by asserting the opponent’s failure to act consistently in accordance with its conclusion(s).
It is a fallacy because the moral character or past actions of the opponent are generally irrelevant to the logic of the argument.[2] It is often used as a red herring tactic and is a special case of the ad hominem fallacy, which is a category of fallacies in which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of fact about the person presenting or supporting the claim or argument.[3]
It’s important we make a strong, united stand against pro-life activists who behave contrary to the values we espouse. At the same time, we shouldn’t allow the good work that has been done to crumble because of its association with them.
If you see a pro-life advocate fall, assess the work they did, and pick up the good parts and carry on. It’s not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about the children who have died and continue to die to this atrocity.
