When does life begin…?
After watching the debate between former President Trump and Vice President Harris I was saddened watching them both speak on the topic of abortion. It is clear both are trying to pander to their bases and to the swing of the culture to garner more votes. While former President Trump has historically declared himself as pro-life he has not come out strong in opposing pro-abortion legislation. When asked about Florida’s amendment 4 ballot measure that would expand abortion rights from 6 weeks to about 24 weeks he first stated it was “too short” and then a day later said he would vote against it after facing backlash from his base.[1] Vice President Harris declined to answer the question about whether or not she would support abortion bans in the 8th and 9th months and has not outlined any restrictions other than saying a woman should have a right to decide what to do with her own body. She failed to condemn what occurs in some states where there are viable babies that are born alive due a botched procedure and are left to die and not given life-saving treatment.[2] This is nothing less than a complete atrocity.
Political candidate stances aside, while one has a position more closely aligned to truly being pro-life, neither is fully upholding human rights for all humans. The humans that are being overlooked and forgotten are the smallest and weakest. They are the unborn. For those reading this that are pro-life you are probably nodding your heads in agreement. For those that consider themselves ‘pro-choice’ you may disagree with this statement. For those that are unsure, you may be skeptical until you learn more. To truly understand this deeply dividing issue, however, we must all ask ourselves this important question:
What are the unborn?
Are they unborn human beings?
Are they something else?
If they are something else, what are they?
Medical textbooks such as “The Developing Human” and “Langman’s Medical Embryology” tell us that life begins at fertilization (or conception) [3] when a sperm and egg fuse together to form a zygote.[4] Sperm and egg, by themselves, only contain half the genetic material needed to form a human being and when these cells fuse to form a zygote, a new human individual who is genetically distinct from both parents comes into existence. There is a wealth of scientific evidence and testimony from medical texts which backs this up.[5]
Further evidence to support the scientific proof that life being at fertilization can be seen in a 2018 survey of biologists from all around the world conducted by Dr. Steven Andrew Jacobs, Ph.D. recipient from the University of Chicago - Department of Comparative Human Development. The study concluded that “95% of all biologists affirmed the biological view that a human's life begins at fertilization (5212 out of 5502).”[6] Dr. Jacobs’ aim in conducting this study was driven by a passion to utilize science to help further the abortion debate. In case there is any doubt about this study to be biased towards ‘pro-lifers’ the respondents had “more liberals (89%) than conservatives (11%)”[7] and more “Democrats (92%) than Republicans (8%)”.[8] But perhaps most importantly was that more participants identified as “pro-choice (85%) than pro-life (15%).[9] Unfortunately, despite the results of this recent study, there will still be some who will argue that unborn babies aren’t protected until they they are born, are viable outside the womb. Others will argue that the unborn baby is a parasite, fetal matter, a ‘clump of cells,’ or just fail to provide any specifics on what this small unborn human being is. But the evidence is indisputably clear that despite these biologists’ strong pro-choice leaning in the political realm, the science, however, concludes that human life begins at fertilization.
So if they are indeed human lives, why is there still a question that these unborn humans should be protected with the same protections all of us receive outside of the womb? This question, I believe, becomes a more philosophical question rather than one of science, because the science is clear. There are many people that will use arguments such as, ‘they’re not a person until viability outside the womb’ or ‘they are not a person until they have brainwaves’ or ‘… a heartbeat'. There can be a lot said about these arguments but all of these are just milestones in the development of a very young human being.
I believe the hard part for many who support pro-abortion policies (and even for some pro-lifers) is that our eyes cannot see this development so it is easy for us to turn a blind eye or not give much thought to it since most of us won’t ever lay eyes on a unborn baby in the earliest stages of development. I think not being able to actually see the humanity of a very small baby it is difficult for some to justify in their brain that it is 1) a human life, but 2) a human life worthy of protection. To help see the beauty of what happens in the womb I encourage anyone reading this to watch this video of baby Olivia and her formation from conception to birth.
If you watch this video it is impossible not to see the humanity of the person. This cannot be denied. Regardless of what side of the debate you’re on, I would ask you to think about Olivia. Olivia was you at one point in your life. Your life didn’t start when you could remember things, or when you were born, or when you could have potentially survived outside of the womb. Your life started at the moment your father’s egg fertilized your mother’s egg and formed a the unique DNA that still makes you the person you are today, unique from every other human.
At 3 weeks old, a heartbeat can be detected. At 6 weeks, brain activity can be recorded and bone formation begins. At 9 weeks a baby sucking their thumb can be detected and at 11 weeks the baby can be detected playing the womb. In many states this isn’t even a third of the way into the window of time an abortion can still occur, all the way up until natural birth at 40 weeks. Think about that… a heartbeat is detectable at 3 weeks and we have states that allow abortion for virtually any reason up until the moment of birth!
Since 1973 there have been 63,459,781 recorded abortions in the United States.[10] That means over 63 million innocent human lives have been killed over the last 50 years. In 2023, there were an estimated 1,026,700 abortions in the United States alone.[11] That’s an average of 2,813 human lives that are lost every single day. In any other circumstance where a human is innocently killed outside of the womb it would be front page news but because these are unborn human lives their humanity is not valued.
So it comes down to the same question we started at the beginning. What are the unborn? Are they human lives? Because if so, they always deserve the same protections every human being deserves regardless of their stage of of life.
Endnotes
1 https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/2024-election/trump-weighs-florida-abortion-marijuana-ballot-measures/
2 https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/08/06/under-gov-tim-walz-babies-born-alive-in-botched-abortions-were-left-to-die-then-he-removed-reporting-requirements/
3 See medical textbooks such as “The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 7th Edition” by Keith L. Moore and “Langman’s Medical Embryology, 10th Edition” by T. W. Sadler.
4 https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/pregnancy-week-by-week/multimedia/fertilization-and-implantation/img-20008656#:~:text=During fertilization, the sperm and,wall — a process called implantation.
5 See medical textbooks such as “The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 7th Edition” by Keith L. Moore and “Langman’s Medical Embryology, 10th Edition” by T. W. Sadler.
6 Jacobs, Steven and Jacobs, Steven, Biologists' Consensus on 'When Life Begins' (July 25, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3211703 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3211703
7 Jacobs, supra note 47, at 239. For example, American participants included biologists from Harvard University, Princeton University, Stanford University, and Yale University. Other participants included biologists from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. For a complete list of all of the participants’ institutions, see ILL. RIGHT TO LIFE, THE SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS ON WHEN LIFE BEGINS: SOURCES THAT ESTABLISH THE CONSENSUS VIEW THAT A HUMAN’S LIFE BEGINS AT FERTILIZATION 24–50 (n.d.).
8 Jacobs, supra note 47, at 239. Because this was an international survey, it is possible that participants who work in schools outside of the U.S. might not have known to what ‘Democrat’ and ‘Republican’ refer; however, participants were able to skip the question, and the same patterns were observed in samples of participants who work outside of the U.S., as none had more than 10% of participants identify as Republican.
9 Id. “Participants rated themselves on three scales from 1–10 that had “pro- choice”, “liberal”, and “Democratic” (1 through 5) on one end and “pro -life”, “conservative”, and “Republican” on the other end (6 through 10).” Id. at 239 n.40.
10 https://www.liveaction.org/learn/the-problem/
11 https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/19/1238293143/abortion-data-how-many-us-2023
Photo courtesy of Live Action