A common contention from pro-choice (read pro-abortion) advocates is that aborting an unborn child is no different than the loss of tissues and cells such as hair and toenail clippings or skin cells. These materials are human in origin as they are made up of cells that contain human DNA but they can never produce an entirely new organism. We sometimes hear that the unborn child is the property of the mother or has no human rights until the mother assigns them.

The appeal to “choice” is another common argument but it begins midstream. Human sexual activity may result in pregnancy. If a woman does not wish to become pregnant, there are courses of action she can take including abstinence and contraception. When used correctly some methods of contraception are very effective. Those who cannot afford children or who do not wish to sacrifice their educational or professional prospects can avail themselves of contraceptives or (gasp!) practice abstinence.

Which brings us to the heinous crimes of rape and incest. Reports vary, but the last time I checked they account for about 1% of all pregnancies. If abortions were prohibited except in those cases we would only see around 25 human beings a day put to death instead of 2,500.

The argument I have come across most frequently of late is that an unborn human being is not a person.

The dictionary has a variety of definitions of “person” which include: “a human being, whether an adult or child, a human being as distinguished from an animal or a thing.” In philosophical terms it’s defined as “a self-conscious or rational being” [snip] while in legal terms it’s “a juristic person recognized by law as having rights and duties.”

Pro-lifers favor the basic definition of a “person” as a human being, while pro-choice advocates emphasize the philosophical and/or legal definitions. Herein lies the conflict.

Pro-choice advocates sometimes claim the unborn are invaders or parasites. They may refer to the unborn as potential human beings, or they may not want to believe that a fertilized human egg is a human being at a particular stage of development. That’s their choice. But doing so requires that they deny, ignore or minimize human biology and science. Human beings have known that pregnant human females will give birth to a young human being for thousands of years. There is no record of a pregnant human female ever giving birth to an organism of any other species.

A quick review of middle school/high school science may be useful:

All matter may be categorized as either living, non-living, or dead. There is an ordered complexity from atoms to molecules which in organisms form organelles such as cell membranes, mitochondria and nuclei. These, among others, form cells that are the smallest living organisms. Sperm cells and egg cells are living things although they cannot sustain life on their own as they are not organisms. Groups of cells form tissues, groups of tissues form organs, groups of organs form organ systems that in turn form an organism. There are unicellular and multicellular organisms.

Organisms share processes like growth, nutrient intake, waste excretion, and reproduction and are ultimately classified by genus and species. Membership in one of these categories is determined by the chromosome pairs composed of amino acids in the DNA. What differentiates a human being (Homo sapiens) from a redwood tree (Sequoia sempervirens) or a fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is the number and arrangement of chromosome pairs in the DNA contained in the cell nucleus and how those genes are expressed.

Human cells may contain a single or a double strand of DNA. Sex cells, such as sperm cells or egg cells contain one strand while the remainder of the cells in the body contain two. When a sperm cell fertilizes an egg cell the strands merge and a new individual is created. That individual is unique in that it contains DNA that is a combination of the single strands contributed by each parent.

Left to itself, a fertilized human egg (zygote) will undergo cell differentiation and division and will subsequently develop into an embryo and then to a fetus, all of which describe an unborn human being. The terms zygote, embryo, fetus, child, adolescent, teenager, adult, and senior citizen all describe particular stages of development of human beings. The prenatal stage ends at delivery and barring accident or disease the human being continues to mature from there.

From the moment a human egg cell is fertilized by a human sperm cell and continuing throughout the lifespan of the individual until death, that individual is classified as Homo sapiens, aka a human being. By definition therefore at no point is it a “potential” human being. It is not a “parasite” because parasitic organisms contain DNA that have different numbers and arrangements of chromosomes from that of their host. While the DNA of an unborn human being varies slightly from the parents, the number of chromosomes is the same.

Everything written to this point is consistent with what has been printed in biological texts for decades. This information is presented to students in elementary, middle and high schools, colleges and universities and should be common knowledge. What is indisputable is that a pregnant human female is carrying an unborn human being. The question that should be asked at this point is, “Do all human beings have human rights?”

I see three options: a) you believe that ALL human beings are endowed with human rights (by God or simply by virtue of the fact that they are human) at the moment of conception, b) you believe that SOME human beings are similarly endowed with human rights at the moment of conception, c) you believe that human beings are endowed with human rights by other human beings at some arbitrary moment in time.

For what it’s worth the results of options b) and c) are deadly. They have resulted in the murder of roughly 200 million people by their governments in the 20th century alone. There’s a lot of that sort of thing going around. Muslim extremists have killed over 200,000 people between 1979 and 2021 and since 1973 there have been over 63 million legal abortions performed just in the U.S. Given their public statements, choices b) and c) appear to be shared by almost every member of today’s Democrat party and, sadly, a great many Republicans.

What is truly horrifying is that there are people who are willing to have an innocent child poisoned or torn to pieces (common techniques used in abortion) so they can have an orgasm. Mother Teresa said, “It is a poverty that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”

Are we sacrificing our children on the altar of self-interest?

Image: Free image, Freepik license.