The faultline hypothesis seems relevant to
understanding the various prolife subgroups. Faultlines are those metaphorical
lines that divide groups into subgroups when some external force activates a
salient attribute of group identity (click
to read more about faultlines).
Perhaps that sounds too academic. Try this.
Faultlines are like the hidden faults beneath the earth’s surface. Under
certain pressure conditions, a quake can occur. People die. Structures are
toppled.
Some key words or images can stimulate an
identity attribute and create a gap between people who thought they shared a
relationship. All of a sudden, the highlighted identity attribute caused them
to be misaligned with the group they shared with a spouse or friends. Now they
are in a different subgroup.
In American politicized religion, prolife
describes a metagroup, but some people have a knack of creating a wedge,
activating a faultline, creating a divide—you get the picture. Suddenly, you
are separated from people with whom you share many other beliefs and practices in common but now
you are divided because someone, often a politician or self-proclaimed
religious leader, activates a unique aspect of the prolife debate.
Let’s draw some faultlines.
 |
| Prolife subgroups/ Sutton, 2020 |
Ultimate prolifers care about all human life. People in this group not only oppose
abortion, but they oppose killing any human being. They oppose war, capital
punishment, and euthanasia. They also oppose artificial means of birth control,
which of course interferes with creating life. Some may also care about the quality of life. The faultline is human life.
Penultimate prolifers are like ultimate prolifers except, they do not object to birth
control methods, which prevent conception. They do object to ending all lives. They often care about the quality of life as well, but the focus is on life per se. The fault line is conception.
Focus on the Foetus prolifers - These people draw a faultline around their subgroup focused only
on the lives of the unborn. Many of these do not consider killing certain
adults as a violation of a prolife position. They argue effectively by showing
or reporting images of mangled late-term aborted babies and providing testimonies of mothers and their children who were not aborted. Some may also care about the quality of life for mother and child. The faultline marks off the conception to birth period of human life.
Mother’s exception prolifers- these people plea for caring about mothers who might die if an
abortion were denied. They can point to examples of mothers who have died. The
faultline declares a mother’s life is more valuable than the life of an unborn
child in those cases where a life decision is required.
Rape exception prolifers—that’s another exception line allowing girls and women to end a
pregnancy if they have become pregnant due to incest or other forms of rape. A
lot of media posts offer testimonies of happy mother-child relationships
despite the mother having been raped. However, some are concerned about young
girls carrying their father’s child around for nine months. The youngest girl-mother was age 5 (wired article). The faultline is rape/incest or child rape/incest.
Survival prolifers. People in this subgroup draw on reason and science and claims that a
right to life exists when the unborn can survive outside mothers. Medical
science has moved this survival line so now some of the unborn can survive when
delivered in the early 20-week period. Some in this subgroup may be politicians
who are trying to compromise in order to set a national standard likely to
become law. In the last few years, lawmakers and politicians have again considered
a national law to ban abortions after 20 or so weeks (e.g., see
Leonard, 2020). The faultline is survival age.
Life affirming prolifers. People in this group affirm a commitment to all human life. They
care not just about the existence of life but about the quality of life. They
are more likely to trust women to make moral choices regarding their pregnancy.
And they support general and mental health care for people of all ages. The
life affirming faultline is quality of life for all.
I might be able to add a few more lines,
but I hope this illustrates how faultlines can be drawn regarding prolife.
Activating
Faultlines
Activation of characteristics that can
force people into or out of groups vary. Some use arguments like the number of
unborn children killed each year. But numbers do not activate human behaviour
like emotional appeals. Others argue about the costs of appeals for those on
death row—suggesting it is cheaper to give them life imprisonment instead of paying
lawyers and court costs to handle the constant appeals. Some have argued based on the number of
convicted murderers who were found innocent based on new evidence.
As most
politicians, psychologists, and salespeople know, reason is a poor method of
activating human behaviour. The more effective strategies for creating
faultlines involve emotional triggers (see triggers).
For the unborn, ultrasound images activate
a positive caring response and unborn prolife protection lines. Images of the
destroyed aborted unborn also evoke disgust and activate unborn prolife protection
lines.
For the exceptionists, stories of mothers
who died because they could not have an abortion evoke disgust and even catalysed
a change in Irish law. Images of raped and pregnant little girls also arouse
empathy and caring in some focus on the foetus prolifers thereby encouraging
some to support a faultline that does not ban every abortion.
There are some ugly epithets hurled at
people in different subgroups. Ironically, some people activate violence toward
the people who disagree with them about their prolife position. I have seen the
label “baby killer” used by some Christians toward those who do not share
their position. I won’t report all of the vile language here. After I posted this, I saw a person respond to a comment I made that "liberals want to kill babies."
It is incredibly difficult to reach out to people who slam groups of people without bothering to understand their position. For example, American Christians do not seem to consider that atheists can be prolife for reasons of supporting human rights. These atheists wish to end the practice of abortion (see link to atheists).
Women have been and are oppressed in much of the world. Throughout history, their lives have been largely controlled by men in religious and political positions of power. Morality is about choice. Behaving based on a law is simply a matter of expediency. We need laws of course. Laws identify what is minimally right and wrong according to the lawmakers. When it comes to abortion, women have a limited range of moral-decision making, which varies with the language of the laws where they live. Sometimes we see the rightness or wrongness of laws by considering extreme cases. When it comes to abortion, a moral question might be "How much does the culture trust women to make a moral decision?"
Comments
The idea of forming subgroups using the faultline hypothesis struck me as useful along with the notion of activating those triggers that apply pressure to people to identify with one subgroup or another. However, I am not sure of all the implications here so I am interested in feedback and reasoned criticism. I am not interested in, and will not accept, comments that include advertising or comments that lack respect for people with different opinions.
Faultlines are ways that groups become A House Divided. See this book discussed by conservatives and progressives on AMAZON and other bookstores worldwide. See links to reviews published in journals.
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