What a fitting topic for this time of year. Abortion itself is a loaded topic, and the amount that I know about human rights beyond common sense is limited to the few Political Science classes I have taken thus far. Luckily, the question of abortion as a human right can be solved with common sense. One of the most commonly heard pieces of heresy from pro-choicers is that abortion is a human right. “My body, my choice.” “Abortion is my right.”
There is no better place to start for this topic than with our nation’s founders. Just read this little piece of literature,
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Why did Thomas Jefferson include “life” among the unalienable rights? Life is never guaranteed. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and die, or I could live another 80 years and die at the ripe age of 102. The point is, it’s impossible to force a person to have life. In fact, if there is one thing we all can agree on it is that we will die one day. So again I ask, why did Jefferson include life as an unalienable right?
Jefferson knew there would be situations where citizens and governments would want to interfere with the course of natural life and natural death. He knew people would want to murder. He knew nations would want to condemn its own citizens to death. There has been murder and capital punishment in nearly every society in the history of the world; of course the want would occur again in this new nation. But Jefferson had a brilliant idea. He included this in the Declaration of Independence to ensure that, in those situations, the person is guaranteed life. In fact, Jefferson was against the death penalty. Discussing this topic, he says in an essay, “the only time a death is necessary is when only one’s death could insure the security of a nation, which is extremely rare.” Later, he says, “A nation that kills its own is a case of absolute anarchy…and is on the verge of losing its liberty.” That doesn’t sound like too many people in Washington today, does it? This is why Jefferson included it among the unalienable rights. Abortion cannot be a human right, because human life is a human right, and abortion takes that away!
There is another reason abortion cannot be a human right. Life presupposes every single right in the Constitution and every right granted by case law. Think of a right you have. Literally any right. If you did not have life, you would not have that right. If you do not have life you cannot have a freedom of religion. If you do not have life you cannot have protection against unreasonable search and seizure. If a woman did not have life, she would not have the right to say “abortion is okay because it’s my body”. Any “right” that takes life away from somebody cannot be a human right. Calling abortion a human right is as contradictory as calling yourself a vegetarian while eating a hamburger.
The question of whether or not abortion is okay comes down to two components. To solve the first component, answer the question “Does an unborn baby, at any age, have life?” Science has proven that life is created the second conception happens. In fact, Princeton University Biology majors conducted a scientific study on this topic. The results speak for themselves. “”The chromosomes of the oocyte and sperm are…respectively enclosed within female and male pronuclei. These pronuclei fuse with each other to produce the single, diploid, 2N nucleus of the fertilized zygote. This moment of zygote formation may be taken as the beginning or zero time point of embryonic development.”
[Larsen, William J. Human Embryology. 2nd edition. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1997, p. 17]
Notice the date on that source. 1997. We have had this technology since at least 1997. Science proves life begins at conception. Another source that spells it out quite well says, “Biology is crystal clear that at the moment of conception (also known as fertilization), a unique organism comes into existence. Since this new life possesses human DNA and is the offspring of human parents, it can legitimately only be described as human life.” Open any Biology textbook and you will see the exact same thing.
Thanks to science, the first component has been solved. Is an unborn baby alive? Yes. Is it alive 30 days after conception? Yes. Is it alive 30 seconds after conception? Yes! Thank you science.
The second component to understanding this difficult issue is whether or not it is okay to kill an innocent human life. Because science has proven the first component, I can only guess that if you remain pro-choice you are in favor of killing an innocent human life. When you use logic to break apart whether or not abortion is a human right, this is where you will be taken. There are only three possible beliefs a person can have about this. 1) Abortion is wrong in every situation and it is never okay to kill an innocent human being. 2) Science is incorrect, human life does not happen at conception, I know more than any biology textbook. 3) Science is correct, but I am okay with killing an innocent human being in a certain circumstance. That’s it, that’s all you have to choose from.
Science and logic work together. Science has never disproved logic and logic has never disproved science. They will continue to work together. When it comes to abortion, science proves life begins at conception and logic proves life presupposes everything. Abortion cannot be a human right.
In Defense of Sanity 
Babies in the womb deserve to be protected…