Why Pro-Life?

A veteran of the abortion debate and prolife champion, Randy Alcorn's ProLife Answers to ProChoice Questions is a landmark of prolife apologetics. Why Pro-Life? is a much shorter distillation of some of the key points made in the earlier work that nevertheless gets to the heart of the issues at stake. Chapters are short and accessible, and while Alcorn's evidence is closely documented, the text itself is uncluttered by references or overly-sophisticated arguments.

Maintaining the question-and-answer format, Why Pro-Life? provides logic- and medical-based answers to many of the most common pro-choice arguments. While Alcorn is an Evangelical Christian, many of his prolife answers aren't specifically Christian or religious in orientation, instead drawing on psychology, science and practical logic to demonstrate the emptiness of pro-abortion rhetoric. This is an excellent tactic on many levels, though many will want a more Biblically-based defense (which Alcorn has provided in ProLife Answers to ProChoice Questions).

In the first chapter Alcorn tells about a public high school class to which he presented the prolife position. The 55-year-old instructor told him afterward that he had never before that day heard the prolife stance, and that he was sure most of the students hadn't either. This is the target audience of Why Pro-Life?: while it is a useful book for those who are already prolife (if for no other reason than to refresh themselves on the key points of the debate), it is even better to give to those who have contemplated having an abortion, those who are prochoice, and those without a clear position of their own. Easy to read and short enough to be engaging, this is an excellent starting point for those still on the fringes (or rendered callous by) the abortion debate.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur.Read more of his reviews here.