The title of this article explores a double meaning. Both pro-abortion and pro-life advocates agree that abortion is a human rights issue.
Abortion advocates believe that women have the right to end the life of their baby. On the other hand, Pro-Life advocates believe abortion denies preborn children the human right to life.
Let’s delve deeper into why abortion should be illegal and consider reasons abortion advocates believe abortion should be legal.
The Pro-Life Perspective: Why Should Abortion Be Illegal?
Abortion ends a life. Life, especially that of a preborn baby, is sacred and deserves to be protected, regardless of whether a baby is inside or outside of the womb. Abortion denies a preborn child a chance at life, damages women’s mental and physical health, and is morally, ethically, and legally unjustifiable.
Life Begins at Conception
Abortion denies a preborn child’s chance to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The personhood movement began in the 2000s, which begged our culture to acknowledge that life inside the womb begets a person—a human being at its most vulnerable. A constitutionally-protected person is “any human from the moment of fertilization.”
Moral and Ethical Considerations
Abortion is not merely terminating a pregnancy. We speak of abortion in sterile, life-less terms that euphemize the inhumanity of the act. As if abortion is like hitting the backspace button or a quick copy/cut decision on a keyboard. In reality, it is the shedding of innocent blood. It is taking life into our own hands and playing God.
Abortion ends a life. We must respect and protect life, especially the most vulnerable members of our society. If the weakest among us can’t be protected, it is a slippery slope until none of us are. The abortion movement prioritizes women’s autonomy over preborn lives. We are murdering our children and calling it a woman’s right to her body.
Psychological Consequences
Killing our children has consequences. Abortions can lead to severe mental health issues for women. Studies show that women who undergo abortions are at a higher risk of developing anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicidal tendencies. These psychological consequences can last for years, even decades, after the abortion. By making abortion illegal, we can help protect women from these devastating mental health issues.
Alternatives to Abortion
Adoption is a viable alternative to abortion. Childless couples are in dire need of children to adopt, and by carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term and giving the child up for adoption, a baby has a chance at life.
There’s also *Snowflake Embryo Adoption, where couples who undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF), end up with more embryos than they actually need. Instead of being killed, these “snowflakes” are donated hopeful parents-to-be, allowing them to experience the joy of parenthood.
Abortion Aides Illegal Activity
Abortion is not a victimless act. It not only kills a preborn child and endangers their mother, but it also protects criminals. Forced abortions are the consequence of legal abortions. Rapists and human traffickers use abortion as a tool to maintain control of their victims. An investigation exposed Planned Parenthood for training its staff on how to identify investigative journalists instead of how to identify child sex traffickers.
One crime begets another. Abortion is the flagrant disregard for human life. When the government is complicit in one silent genocide, more heinous crime is bound to follow.
Counter-Argument: Why Should Abortion Be Legal?
It’s culturally glamorous to support abortion. The camaraderie of women rallying around women seems appealing. The abortion movement began in the name of choice. By contorting the feminist movement, women needed the right to kill their babies in order to be equal to men.
Yet, how much more satisfying it is to tell a woman that she is capable of being a mother while pursuing her dreams. She is strong, and her body was made for this.
In order to justify abortion, some key arguments pro-abortion supporters argue are the need for women to access “safe” abortions, the need to protect reproductive rights and bodily autonomy, and reduce financial burdens.
Protecting Women’s Health
Many Americans believe the lie that if women do not have access to legalized or “safe” abortions, then more women will die from illegal, unsafe abortions.
Dr. Bernard Nathanson, an obstetrician and gynecologist who committed over 75,000 abortions in his career, became a major Pro-Life voice. He defended life and confessed to contributing to the lies and deceit that fueled the abortion movement. Dr. Nathanson admitted:
“We fed the public a line of deceit, dishonesty, a fabrication of statistics and figures. We succeeded [in breaking down the laws limiting abortions] because the time was right, and the news media cooperated. We sensationalized the effects of illegal abortions, and fabricated polls which indicated that 85% of the public favored unrestricted abortion, when we knew it was only 5%. We unashamedly lied, and yet our statements were quoted [by the media] as though they had been written in law.”
Before Roe, the statistics regarding self-induced abortions resulting in maternal mortality were excessively exaggerated. Dobbs v. Jackson explained, “Contrary to what some suggest, Roe was not a significant cause of reduced maternal mortality and morbidity from abortion.”
The modern-day lie we are now fed is that abortion is safer than childbirth, which is simply not the case.
Unwanted Babies
When Roe was overturned, many pro-abortion advocates asked questions like Jameela Jamil:
“Who is gonna pay for all these unwanted babies? Who is giving out free healthcare to people forced to follow through on pregnancies? Who is going to better fund the adoption system? Who is going to pay for the food, shelter and education of these forced children? Or the therapy of the rape victims and children forced to carry pregnancies to term?”
While the perspective above does seem concerned over a potential post-Roe reality, it exposes a lazy and compassionless viewpoint that would rather kill preborn children before they become a burden outside of the womb.
Many abortion advocates are ignorant of the lifesaving care Pregnancy Resource Clinics provide to pregnant mothers and their babies, before, during, and after birth. If our nation prioritized life and family, our taxpayer dollars could go to better adoption systems instead of funding abortions at Planned Parenthood.
Legal Precedent: A Human Rights Issue
Just like doctors swear “to do no harm” through their hippocratic oath, our government is bound by a similar promise. The US constitution was written to protect fundamental rights, which the Declaration of Independence identified as the right to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
When Roe v. Wade created a precedent to legalize abortion nationwide, it created a clause to those inalienable rights, rewriting the right to “Life, except when it is unwanted, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
A Major Change
House Republicans have introduced a bill that might bring about a refreshing change to the federal child tax credit system.
Named the Providing For Life Act, this potential legislation suggests allowing preborn babies to qualify for a child tax credit. If passed, parents could see enhanced benefits during pregnancy.
At the time of the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973, fetal viability was generally considered before 28 weeks. The overturning of Roe in June 2022 eliminated the right to abortion nationwide because the constitution never guaranteed such a right.
Abortion should never have been legal as it is the government’s function to protect the human rights of the governed—including preborn lives.
Conclusion
Behind every legal, moral, ethical, or logical argument of why abortion should be illegal is our Mighty Creator who formed each of us in our mother’s womb.
God is in the fight for life. He loves mothers and children, and He has instructed us to take care of the widows and orphans. The abortion argument may make mothers out to be second-class citizens, but we know motherhood only adds to the calling on a woman’s life and never takes away from it.
Despite the laws or lack of laws in our land, PreBorn! Network Clinics will always step up to empower women to confidently choose life for their babies.
*Snowflakes® and Snowflake® is a registered trademark of Nightlight Christian Adoptions