Answering Pro-Choice Arguments
“Abortion Is Just The Removal Of A Pregnancy”
“Pregnancy is a period of up to 41 weeks in which a fetus develops inside a woman’s womb” – Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
The National Library of Medicine advisory message that now appears below every abortion-related YouTube video states that abortion is “a procedure to remove the pregnancy from the uterus.”
But since pregnancy is the period of time the human fetus spends in his or her mother’s womb, the pregnancy itself cannot be “removed.” It can only be “ended” or “terminated,” either through birth, miscarriage, or abortion.
With abortion, a pregnancy is terminated in such a way that it “does not result in a live birth,” according to the CDC.
In abortion, a growing human fetus is killed and removed from the womb.
In surgical abortions, a fetus is killed through suctioning, induced cardiac arrest, poisoning, or dismemberment, and removed using metal tools or vaccuums.
In chemical abortions, the fetus is starved of the needed growth hormone progesterone, and then contractions are induced to expel the tiny, deceased body from the womb.
“Fetuses Aren’t People Yet”
Stanford Medicine defines a human fetus as “[a]n unborn baby from the 8th week after fertilization until birth.”
Pro-choice activists often argue that there is a difference between being human and being a person. But “Human Plus” arguments, that is, that someone is a person if they’re human AND they’re self-aware, rational, capable of feeling pain, etc.
But these tests fail because they either set the bar too low for personhood, (i.e., squirrels can feel pain and they aren’t people) or too high (i.e., newborns and individuals suffering from comas aren’t self-aware, but that doesn’t mean they’re not people).
“Abortion Is Better Than Forcing A Child To Live In Poverty Or With A Disability”
“My Body, My Choice”
Though the fetus lives inside the mother’s womb, he or she is not a part of the mother’s body.
From the moment of conception, a fetus has his or her own unique DNA, and is a biologically whole organism who will – if healthy, supplied with necessary nutrition, and not killed through external intervention – exit the birth canal and continue developing past the newborn stage and into an adult human being.
Many pro-choice activists say that pro-life laws are wrong because the government shouldn’t make laws about what someone can or can’t do with their own body.
But even if the fetus were merely a part of his or her mother’s body and not a distinct human person, this argument is unsound because almost all laws do this.
Laws against theft, murder, domestic violence, child abuse, drug use, trespassing, reckless driving, etc. all place restrictions on the physical actions a person can legally perform with their own bodies.
A man who punches another cannot claim that he simply “has a right to do what he wants with his own body.”
“Pro-Life Laws Hurt Women”
“Late-Term Elective Abortions Don’t Happen”
