“I should not be the one deciding for a woman I have never met if she should have an abortion.” Many men I’ve met have made this argument. This isn’t an uncommon perspective, but unfortunately I think it stems from a core misunderstanding of the pro-life position. I’ve met many people who think pro-lifers simply want to raise the birth rate or control women. I’ve worked with women who were called betrayers of their sex for identifying as pro-life. So why do pro-lifers care so much? Why can’t they just mind their own business?
The answer is that pro-lifers genuinely believe every abortion kills a unique and valuable human being. Biologically, we know the unborn are living human organisms. The embryo is consuming nutrients and growing, so it must be alive. The embryo has human parents, so it must be human. It’s not a potential human; it is a developing human organism. And pro-lifers believe every human has inherent value, regardless of their physical or mental capabilities, stage of development, or dependence on others.
If we genuinely believe abortion ends an innocent human life, then we have the same obligation to protect them under law that we have for newborns or infants. In either case, an irreplaceable life is being cut short, depriving them of the decades of life they might otherwise experience.
Should we feel comfortable being silent if we truly believe hundreds of thousands of innocent humans are being killed every year in our country? That’s why pro-lifers can’t just “mind their own business.” That’s why we can’t stay silent when California colleges force students to fund abortions. That’s why we still show up after being mocked, filmed, misrepresented, and even having coffee thrown on us.
I also want to briefly address bodily autonomy, a real concern many people have. I’ve met people who compare it to forced organ donation, and the question people seem to disagree on is “What obligations do parents have to provide for their children when nobody else can meet their needs?”
I believe that every child has the right to the same resources that you, I, and everyone else have needed to survive at that stage of life. Many people agree it’s wrong to deprive born children of what they need to survive, even if it requires the use of an intimate organ (such as breastfeeding when the mother doesn’t have access to formula). Many also agree that the difficulty of caring for a born child without access to adoption (as it is in many rural areas) also doesn’t justify otherwise killing them. Most of us would agree that parents have an obligation to take care of our children, even if it causes mental, physical, or emotional strain and no one is able to help. This obligation seems especially strong when our actions are responsible for a child’s dependence on us.
We might not all be directly affected by abortion, but that doesn’t mean we should stay silent. If we believe every human life has inherent value, we should speak out against injustice, even if it affects people who are different from us.
Sent in by Andrew Hartnell a 3rd year Computer Science major.