The Secular Case Against Abortion

Although I am a deeply spiritual person and my Jewish heritage certainly guides my morals and ethics, I do not argue most of my political positions from a religious point of view. When I talk to other pro-lifers, they often make references to the Bible, to the Torah (the Jewish equivalent to the Bible), or to some other sort of religious text that declares abortion immoral. But because of separation of church and state, these arguments are invalid from a legal standpoint, and only serve as a personal guide. My belief is that the pro-life position can only win in the end if we argue based on scientific and logical secular evidence, of which I think we have a lot.

Biologically, there are seven characteristics to life. I am not going to bore you with listing them all, but you can click here to see them if you are interested. From the very moment of conception, all seven biological characteristics of life are met, making it a scientifically-proven life. And from the moment of conception, that new life has its own unique human DNA like none other before it, making it scientifically identifiable as a human being. Therefore, from a scientific standpoint, abortion ends a human life whether it is performed with a “Plan-B” pill or after 24 weeks (which is legal in several states).

Ever since it has been scientifically provable that abortion ends a human life, pro-choicers have turned to the incredibly invalid argument that the fetus is not viable outside of the womb, so therefore it is not fully a human life and can be murdered. But when you really think about it, aren’t most of us not viable on our own? My grandfather is not viable on his own without pills that keep his heart beating. Millions of Americans with diabetes are not viable on their own without their medication. People in need of organ transplants are not viable on their own without a new organ followed up by dozens of pills. And is a baby really even viable on its own day of birth? Yes, it can breathe by itself, but it certainly can’t provide for itself, and without its parents, it would die. If we make the claim that murder should be legal when a life is not viable by itself, then it should become legal to murder enormous swaths of our population.

Many pro-lifers say that abortion should be sent back to the states, and that it should be up for them to decide whether abortion should be legal or not. But when I look at the Constitution, I do not see a state’s issue. Rather, I see a clear, constitutional argument against abortion that can be argued at the federal level. While I tend to disagree with the federal government making large decisions, I support it when it is corroborated by the Constitution and/or the Declaration of Independence. When I see our Declaration, I think it is clear on abortion when it states, “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.” There is our Constitution’s fifth amendment, among others, which declares, “nor [shall a person] be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” There is also our 14th Amendment, which says, “nor [shall any State] deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” From a purely secular standpoint, our founding documents are overwhelmingly pro-life.

When you argue with a pro-choicer, you will quickly find that many of their arguments are just immoral. For example, they argue about needing abortions for population control, or for population cleansing. It can be somewhat disturbing. Let me debunk these unethical arguments. First, someone who is pro-choice might say that the world already has too many people, and that it doesn’t have room for any more, so abortion is necessary in keeping populations low. This notion that the world is overpopulated is ludicrous. The vast majority of America is sparsely inhabited. Even China, with over 1 billion people, is almost entirely made up of farmland. We have plenty of room for more people. Furthermore, wouldn’t a better way of population control be discouraging premarital unprotected sex, rather than killing life off after it exists?

One of the big pro-choice arguments is that abortion is needed as a way to prevent unwanted children from ending up in the penal and welfare systems. First of all, who are we to presume what a person’s future will be before it is even born? Who are you to say that it is unwanted? For all we know, it could be put up for adoption and adopted into an extremely loving home with parents who would do anything for it. People who are pro-choice seem to forget that we have a flourishing adoption system set in place in this country. They try to argue that the mother can’t afford the baby, that the mother doesn’t want the baby, etc., which can all be refuted by one word — adoption.

Abortions can greatly affect the mental health of the women who have them. Abortions often trigger a depression-related illness known as Post Abortion Stress Syndrome (PASS). Much like PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder),  PASS often sends women who have had abortions into depression and a whirlwind of grief, regret, and trauma.

Lastly, I would like to shed some light on the irrational pro-choice argument that if abortion became illegal, people would just revert to doing unsafe abortions in “back-alleys,” so abortion should be kept “safe and legal.” There is no such thing as a “safe abortion.” A “safe abortion” is somewhat of an oxymoron, because last time I checked, someone did not die 100% of the time from something that was “safe.” At the end of the day, the amount of lives lost would greatly decrease if abortion was made illegal. In 1973, after abortions were legalized, abortion rates in America skyrocketed. The inverse of that would happen if it were made illegal, too.

Religion does not need to be relevant in order to win a debate about abortion. In fact, from a legal standpoint, secular arguments would hold up better than religious ones. While religion should play an active role in molding our morals and personal beliefs, our legal standpoint on abortion should remain secular, and that is the only way that we can win the debate in the end.

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