The True Philosophy of Privilege

In the United States, a single dollar bill costs the government 4.2 cents to manufacture. So when that $1 note is printed and distributed, value has been assigned. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing has spent 4.2 cents to print a dollar bill, which has been assigned a value of 100 cents. 

In our world today, the idea of value is often assigned, not inherent. Except for rare metals like gold and silver, most things that hold value do so because someone has assigned value to them. 

Items like high school trophies, old wedding dresses, and Grandpa’s World War II uniform carry a value that has been assigned to them, instead of one inherent to their material. 

The Reality of Privilege 

When discussing the idea of value attributed to people, one word often tethered to this discussion is “privilege.”

Today, “privilege” usually consists of the belief that certain individuals are more likely than others to receive a job, scholarship, loan, etc. Likewise, other individuals are more prone to negative experiences, like getting arrested, lower salaries, etc. 

These conversations normally focus on white and male individuals, claiming that “white privilege” and “male privilege” are to blame for any disparity between these groups of people and others. This mindset theorizes that sections of the population are valued less than others, and that is why the undervalued groups fall and the valued groups rise.

These progressive thinkers, despite their best efforts, fail to recognize the greatest “privilege” in our modern world: The privilege of birth. 

According to the 2008 study, “Abortion Incidence and Access to Services In the United States” conducted by the Guttmacher Institute, around 20% of all pregnancies end in abortion, meaning that approximately four of every five unborn babies are valued enough to be allowed to live, but that fifth child is not, leading to abortion. One group receives death and the other life. 

Devoid of all reason, and lacking any recognizable difference between the two, one child is valued and one child is killed. Where else can you find that level of unwarranted discrimination and mistreatment? 

The practice and proliferation of abortion is the most glaring and reprehensible example of privilege in our world. It is, in essence, the true philosophy of privilege. 

However, instead of stressing the inconsistency and discussing how grossly unjust abortion is to its victims, the never-ending war between the pro-life and pro-choice armies has the unfortunate (yet calculated) tendency to get sidetracked in the “what ifs.”

What if the pregnancy was caused by rape? 

What if the pregnancy was caused by incest? 

What if the mother’s life is in danger?

These are all relevant questions that deserve answers, but they don’t truly address the issue at the core of the abortion discussion: Does the unborn baby have value?

This is the deciding factor, the hinge upon which the arguments of both sides turn. 

Pro-choice individuals purport that the child inside the womb has no value, so there is no problem with dismantling and discarding the baby like you would a growth or tumor. The pro-life side insists that the unborn baby is inherently valuable, and thus must be treated with that value in mind. 

The “what ifs” mentioned above are a distraction from this core question. How the baby is conceived and exists in the womb has no bearing on the child’s value.  

Although the circumstances are horrible, a child conceived through rape or incest, or creating health problems in the womb, still possesses the same inherent value as a child conceived in a healthy circumstance.

The History of Privilege 

Unfortunately for the pro-choice camp, they do not share stellar company. The idea that certain human beings lack value and can therefore be treated inhumanely was not introduced with Roe v. Wade. 

It’s far older than that. 

This philosophy of privilege easily predates legalized abortion. Institutions such as slavery operate on the same fundamental doctrine. Those involved and supporting the slave trade during 18th and 19th century America believed, whether they admitted to it or not, that those African men and women did not hold the same value as individuals living in America. Because of this status as sub-human, those people could be shipped, stored, controlled, and worked in manners resembling the treatment of livestock.

The modern-day human trafficking pandemic follows the same logic. Men and women, young and old, are bought and paid for all over the world. They are used for sex, manual labor, and entertainment. In other words, their value is perceived as that of a tool or item, one that is offered to a consumer and eventually discarded.

In the 20th century, the Nazis decided to treat the Jews not as people, but as rats that required extermination. What followed was one of the greatest atrocities ever committed, the Holocaust, where more than 60 million people were killed. 

Inherent Value 

Unlike money or heirlooms, human life does not have an assigned value. Instead, human life has an inherent value, bestowed upon it by the Creator. He created them male and female and blessed them. And He named them "Mankind” when they were created. (Genesis 5:2)

The Lord also describes the quality of His creation, saying in Psalm 139:14 that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” God tells of our worth as humans in Matthew 10:29-31: 

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

The disregard towards human life in the womb has not stopped at the doors of the church. Jes Kast, a United Church of Christ pastor in State College, Pennsylvania, maintains her pro-choice stance even in the face of these Bible verses.

“I began questioning,” Kast said in an article published by The Atlantic, “What about bodily autonomy? Isn’t that justice? How would God ever infringe upon that?”

The irony of someone claiming “bodily autonomy” as a defense for killing a living breathing human body is far more shocking than words can adequately communicate.

Pastors like these must possess Bibles legitimately lighter than usual, considering all the pages that must be missing.

In addition to the above verses, God’s Word clearly states in Psalm 139:13: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” 

Our lives clearly hold inherent value long before birth. 

Regardless of how untimely or inconvenient the presence of an unborn baby is in the life of his/her parents, that baby has an inherent value that matches the value of any other living breathing person.

Once this fact is understood, abortion can no longer be viewed as anything less than genocide. 

The reference website, Worldometer, reports that 40-50 million babies are killed through abortion each year, corresponding to roughly 125,000 babies killed every day. 

We live in a world where facts are widely ignored, and when reason is discarded by leaders such as Kast, it has the power to sway many people in a deadly direction. 

The French writer, Voltaire, lived in the 18th century, but wrote quite pointedly about the 21st: “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”