First, a quick question to set the mood for this post.
I’ve aired my grievances about the lack of logic and cohesive thought of pro-choice arguments previously, but I just cannot leave the subject alone when I see a stunt like this:
The gist of the story is: HB 954 in the Georgia House moves to ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy because we now know growing humans can feel pain at least by this gestational age. In a sort of protest to this bill, Georgia House Democrats have proposed legislation –obviously, tongue in cheek-- that would seek to ban vasectomies. Yasmin Neal proposed the farcical bill and states, “It is patently unfair that men can avoid unwanted fatherhood by presuming that their judgment over such matters is more valid than the judgment of the General Assembly, while women's ability to decide is constantly up for debate throughout the United States."
This would be brilliant politics if only the decision to have a vasectomy were somehow analogous to the decision to have an abortion. But the analogy collapses when one gives it more than a nanosecond of consideration and leaves aside self-congratulatory smugness over aligning an unwilling universe to one's pet progressive ideology. Vasectomies are meant to prevent pregnancies; abortions are meant to end already existing pregnancies. A vasectomy is done to a consenting adult’s body (a potential father); an abortion is done inside a consenting adult’s body (the actual mother) to the body of a separate member of the species homo sapiens who is given no say in the matter (the embryonic or fetal human). Therefore, the rough equivalent to a male’s vasectomy is not, for a woman, abortion, but rather tubal ligation. Male sterilization vs. female sterilization, apples to apples.
There is an extreme minority fringe on the outskirts of any political movement, and the pro-life movement would be no exception. Is it possible that some pro-lifer out there in the world would propose or vote for legislation to ban voluntary sterilization? Hey, anything is possible. But, that is so far off the map of mainstream pro-life issues you need NASA to find it for you. Many people consider me a pro-life nut, particularly because I go so "fanatically" far as to use natural family planning to space children, rather than use artificial birth control. However, even a nut like me would not be for banning voluntary sterilization. I would not sterilize myself; I would not recommend it for anyone; but, it is your body, your choice. I think smoking is bad for one’s health, too, but I do not think it should be illegal. I might give you some unsolicited advice against smoking, but I would not push for a law to take your choice away. However, when you start making a “choice” to disintegrate, decapitate, dismember or otherwise kill and treat as garbage a completely innocent human being it should be obvious you are no longer saying, “My body my choice,” but rather, “My body over your dead body.”
Abortion involves two bodies, not one. At conception, a member of our species suddenly exists who did not exist mere seconds before: his or her genetic code is not the mother's own; only half of it came from her; the DNA is complete and utterly unique. Two haploid cells (each containing half of a human DNA strand), a sperm and an egg, met and formed a diploid cell (complete human DNA). The organism is quite clearly and obviously NOT THE MOTHER. Just as you and I once were, the organism is in the zygotic stage. Is this zygote alive? Yes. It has metabolism, maintains homeostasis, grows, responds to stimuli –say it along with your high school biology teacher: “If you mark this 'not alive' on your exam tomorrow I will place a big, red X on your answer because it will be WRONG.” Now, what kind of zygote is it exactly? A whale zygote? Dolphin? Cat? No, that is genetically impossible. If you are human, your offspring is human. It is a human zygote; it is a member of the species homo sapiens just like the rest of us. If you do not believe me, seriously, try this: leave the zygote alone for a few weeks. It will sprout arms and legs and a brain and heart and everything! Whoa. Pretty recognizable as a human, even to those without much knowledge of biology, embryology, genetics or the classification of life.
An embryo is, like you and I, a developing human being. You and I will not stop developing in this life until we are dead. Do we value people more based on what level of development they have achieved? If someone kills a 3 year old is it less wrong than if they kill a 16 year old? If a 20 year old is mentally disabled and will never get beyond a third grade reading level is running over that person less horrible than running over a 20 year old who has full reasoning capacity? Does the size of an embryo make it somehow less human? If so, then it logically follows that it is less wrong to murder a person with dwarfism than a person with gigantism. Pro-choice philosophy sure is arbitrary.
Abortion simply does not make moral, scientific, legal, or intuitive sense. Banning abortion is a reasonable position. But, the bill in Georgia does not even go that far. It merely asks that we not abort humans after 20 weeks’ gestation because we know they can feel pain at least by this age. The fetus does not feel pain when his mother stubs her toe but does feel pain when being torn apart with a vacuum during abortion. If that is not conclusive evidence that a 20 week old fetus is NOT his or her mother’s body I do not know what is. So, I am baffled by pro-choice opposition to the bill. They say abortion is "a woman's body, a woman's choice.” But, at least by 20 weeks –and, if we are being honest, at the moment of conception-- the entity in a woman’s womb is demonstrably NOT HER. And, to boot, the entity may actually be a female! Do women only have rights once they exit the womb? For the 500,000 or so females we have killed in America through abortion this past year, we have answered a resounding yes. And the 500,000 or so males we have killed by abortion last year? Yeah, no rights for them, either.
Final thought: Current law in Georgia prohibits abortion after 24 weeks. This little guy was born prematurely at 23 weeks’ gestation in Britain last year, survived, and went home with his parents when it was safe to do so: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8660450/Premature-baby-survives-after-doctors-advised-abortion.html I guess according to Georgia pro-choice activists his parents had the right to kill him just before his mother went into labor if they had wanted to, and it would not have been any worse than a man choosing to have his testicles clipped to prevent sperm cells from exiting his penis. A sperm cell and a premature human baby may as well be the same thing. Move along, pro-lifers, nothing to see here. Do not trust science or logic. Trust Planned Parenthood.
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