Life from Conception to Birth

Facts on Fetal Development

Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Abortion Arguments

Abortion proponents have relied on the same arguments time and time again. Below are some of those arguments broken down into their five basic types and followed by effective pro-life responses.

Argument 1: It is not a human being/person.

• Life begins at birth.
• A fetus is just a part of a woman's body.
• It is not a baby.
• A fetus is only a potential human being.
• I'm not for abortion when the fetus is viable, but the government shouldn't restrict it during the first trimester.
• Don't impose your religious beliefs on me.

Response:

When a woman is pregnant, science, not religion, has shown that the new life she carries is a complete and fully new human being from the earliest stages of life. When the sperm and egg combine, 46 chromosomes combine to determine everything from the physical features to the personality of the new human being. Whether the abortion is performed early or late, it is the same baby who dies. As early as 18 days after fertilization, the baby already has a beating heart. By six weeks, brain waves are detectable. Most abortions are performed at nine weeks, stopping a beating heart and functioning brain. The baby growing in her mother is a distinct and unique person just like you and me, and likewise, as deserving of protection under the law. ↑

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Argument 2: A woman has a right to control her own body.

• Even if the unborn is a person, we can't force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term against her will.
• Getting an abortion is a private decision between a woman and her doctor, the government needs to stay out of it.
• Some women have no other choice.
• An unwed girl should not have to deal with the embarrassment of carrying a pregnancy to term or deal with the pain of placing the baby for adoption.
• Women won't ever have equal rights if abortion isn't an option.
• Freedom of choice must be protected.
• I'm personally opposed, but I would never force my opinion on someone else.
• Teens are capable of making the abortion decision on their own.

Response:

Every mother has to make numerous decisions for herself and for her child, but these decisions can never include the right to kill her baby. The right to choose is not without limitation. There was a time when many Americans thought they had a right to choose slave ownership but they ultimately decided not to allow that 'choice'. When you say the decision is between a woman and her doctor you're forgetting someone - the unborn baby who dies every time an abortion is performed. While the government has no right to tell anyone whether or not to have children, it does have a right and a duty to protect one group of human beings from being killed by another. Women in crisis pregnancies deserve accurate and compassionate information about the facts of fetal development as well as the help that is available to them through thousands of crisis pregnancy centers across the United States.
Parental consultation and consent is required for minors to have a tooth drilled, to take an aspirin dispensed by the school nurse, or even to go on a field trip. In all other areas of a teenager's life, parental guidance is considered necessary. ↑

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Argument 3: Every child should be a wanted child.

• The world is quickly becoming overpopulated.
• It is unfair to bring an unwanted child into this world.
• If abortion is made illegal, millions of unwanted babies will become the victims of abuse and neglect.
• The church and the state are separate and you can't legislate morality.
• The poor need to limit their children or they will continue to increase the demand for welfare.

Response:

We will never end poverty simply by killing poor children. The poor mother who is encouraged to have an abortion today is just as poor tomorrow. Problems such as lack of job security, education, or abuse are not cured by ignoring their existence in a woman's life and turning to abortion as a quick fix. The real problem is a lack of development - not population. Women of the world desire and deserve good basic health care for themselves and their families. In countries where abortion is not legal, it is often because of strong cultural and religious beliefs. These beliefs need to be supported by wiser development plans and not more dangerous and deadly abortion activity. An unplanned pregnancy does not necessarily mean an 'unwanted' baby. Many report that pregnancies they didn't plan resulted in babies who were much loved and wanted after birth. Legalizing abortion has done nothing to reduce child abuse. It has only added to the idea that only 'wanted' children have value and that those who are not wanted can be mistreated or even destroyed. ↑

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Argument 4: Back-Alley Abortions

• If abortion becomes illegal again, women will resort to back alley abortions and die.
• Abortion may be the best answer for a woman at this time in her life.
• Abortion is safer than childbirth.
• Abortion is easy and painless.

Response:

It is fact that the numbers often used by pro-aborts to back their back alley claims are large exaggerations made up by the pro-abortion lobby. The real numbers of deaths before 1973 are shockingly different. 39 women died of illegal abortions in 1973, the year before Roe v Wade. Those 39 tragedies occurred with the death of their 39 children because of abortion's violence. Even one such death is a tragedy, but the way to prevent women from dying is not to continue the destruction of 1.3 million babies each year. The true reason the number of deaths have decreased from abortion isn't legalization, it was the widespread introduction of antibiotics into medicine that saved the lives of women who would have otherwise died of botched abortions.
Today, over 300 women have died due to complications from LEGAL abortion. Clearly, legalized abortion is not the answer. Mothers deserve better answers than the death of their children through the violence of abortion, legal or illegal. ↑

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Argument 5: The Hard Cases

• What if the woman's life is threatened by an ectopic pregnancy?
• If a woman finds out that her unborn child has disabilities, she should be able to choose to save the child from having a difficult life.
• What if the woman was raped or was the victim of incest?

Response:

Research by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, an affiliate of Planned Parenthood, showed that the most common reason for wanting an abortion for 75% of women was that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other social or economic aspects of their lives. Only 1% said being a rape or incest victim influenced their decision in any way, and only 3% listed a health problem as their reason.

1. In life-threatening situations like ectopic pregnancies, terminating the pregnancy due to the imminent death of both mother and child has never been illegal and we are not advocating that it be illegal now.
2. We don't cure illness by killing the patient. Aborting a child with a disability or illness is the utmost prejudice. When a family learns that the child they are expecting may have a special need, that family needs support and helpful medical information- not the death of their most fragile member. Society must cease the attitude that uses arbitrary yard sticks to measure a person's worth.
3. When a woman has been raped or is the victim of incest, she has been the victim of a terrifying act of violence of which she is a true victim. Tragically, we are sometimes faced with a second victim, a baby. While pregnancy is extremely rare from rape, it can and does happen. The cruelest thing that can happen to a woman in this situation is to pit her against her child. Several US studies have shown that women who were encouraged to use abortion in such circumstances felt that they had been put through a second act of violence, the violence and pain of an abortion. Worse than that, they reported feelings of being made into the victimizer of their own child. They felt that their baby had paid with his/her life for the crime of the rapist. On the other hand, mothers who found support to carry their babies to term, whether they opted for adoption or kept their babies, felt that they had turned a horrible act into a life-giving opportunity. There must be support for the victims, mothers and children. ↑

Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Abortion Arguments