Patrick S. Tomlinson is an author from the States.
He also has a simple question for those who claim to be pro-life.
Patrick is pro-choice so Patrick believes that women should have the opportunity to choose whether or not they want to be pregnant.
Patrick doesn’t believe that life begins at conception… and nor does he think that pro-life people believe it either.
He’s taken to Twitter to share his theory – the hypothesis of which he’s gathered from asking pro-life people a simple question over the years.
It goes a little something like this.
Whenever abortion comes up, I have a question I've been asking for ten years now of the "Life begins at Conception" crowd. In ten years, no one has EVER answered it honestly. 1/
— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) October 17, 2017
Patrick says that there are two possible answers to his question.
He believes that answering one way proves that a person truly does think that life begins at conception and that answering another way does not.
However, Patrick says a pro-life person has never given a straight answer to his query.
It’s a simple scenario with two outcomes. No one ever wants to pick one, because the correct answer destroys their argument. And there IS a correct answer, which is why the pro-life crowd hates the question. 2/
— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) October 17, 2017
This is Patrick’s thread.
They're in one corner of the room. In the other corner, you spot a frozen container labeled "1000 Viable Human Embryos." The smoke is rising. You start to choke. You know you can grab one or the other, but not both before you succumb to smoke inhalation and die, saving no one. 4/
— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) October 17, 2017
They will never answer honestly, because we all instinctively understand the right answer is "A." A human child is worth more than a thousand embryos. Or ten thousand. Or a million. Because they are not the same, not morally, not ethically, not biologically. 6/
— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) October 17, 2017
They are lying to you to try and evoke an emotional response, a paternal response, using false-equivalency.
No one believes life begins at conception. No one believes embryos are babies, or children. Those who cliam to are trying to manipulate you so they can control women. 8/
— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) October 17, 2017
Patrick goes on to say that this question should be used to “call out” those who claim to believe that life begins at conception.
He says that a lot of the time, people miss the point and believe that pro-choice people see embryos as without value entirely.
Instead, Patrick posits that they are of course valuable and that they are alive… just not as valuable and not as alive as a living, breathing child.
Or a living, breathing woman, for that matter.
This day 5 years ago Savita Halappanaver was admitted to hospital. She never left. Nothing has changed. Join the vigils. #repealthe8th pic.twitter.com/PfcGay4Ed0
— Rebels4Choice (@Rebels4Choice) October 21, 2017
While Patrick’s question does not entirely ‘destroy’ the pro-life argument as some people online have suggested, it does prove the flimsiness of the life-begins-at-conception argument.
His thread has also been shared over 27,000 times on Twitter.
So, if anything, it’s at least given a lot of people something to think about.
