Matthew Brophy’s Thursday guest column, “Christian Mythology Oppresses Women,” completely missed the mark in trying to counter the pro-life movement and its efforts in passing South Dakota’s abortion ban.

He claimed the Christian belief that the unborn possesses a soul is the entire basis of the abortion ban and of the pro-life movement as a whole. I found this claim strange considering that in the report outlining the bill, the word soul never even was mentioned.

What was mentioned, however, was that since Roe v. Wade we have proven the distinct genetic personhood of the unborn child from the time of conception, we have proven that the unborn can feel pain and we have seen women suffer the mentally and emotionally shattering effects of post-abortion syndrome, a medically classified post-traumatic stress disorder.

So lets get down to the facts: Brophy’s attempt to oversimplify the Christian pro-life movement and the ban on abortion it backs followed the same tired old pattern used by all liberals: If you can’t counter a conservative’s ideas, dumb them down enough until they’re at your level and then take a cheap shot at them in the supposedly free marketplace of ideas.

In addition to falsely characterizing the bill to ban abortion, Brophy misrepresents and misunderstands its supporters.

Not all supporters of the bill are necessarily Christian, and assuming they were, their belief in a soul at the time of conception is not the only reason for their support of the bill. Biological evidence of personhood and genuine concern for women also motivates their support.

Knowing this is what made it so surprising for me to read Brophy’s claim that “modern-day Christians, unlike Christ, don’t seem to care about people: the lepers of our times – the poor, the sick, the oppressed.”

What opponents of the ban need to understand is that the Christian view of modern-day lepers includes poor, unwed pregnant women, the sick and the oppressed. However, its scope extends beyond only those convenient and non-controversial enough to care about to include the elderly, the mentally handicapped and, most relevant to this case, the unborn.

We know that all these groups of people possess a personhood deserving of dignity and respect whether we argue it using our belief in the soul or via the wealth of biological evidence supporting this fact.

For this reason, Christians feel that allowing a woman to kill her unborn child is unjust for the woman, who risks traumatic aftereffects, and for the dead child.

Rather, we seek to create a society in which pregnant women have the resources and support to never feel desperate enough to reach the point of considering abortion.

That is the true mentality of Christians and of those in support of South Dakota’s abortion ban. How is such a mentality at the “tragic expense of the human being?” It seems that the only propagator of myth is Brophy himself.

Anne Billion is the president of the University Pro-Life Coalition. Please send comments to [email protected].