Abortion Laws: Are government officers really educated?
- Prisha
- May 23, 2021
- 4 min read
Within just this week, it has come to my attention that apparently Pro-lifers are not Pro-lifers. Why? Because if they were, then they would care about the mother's life and the child's life, not about the birth of a fetus. What's more alarming is that the US seems to have stopped caring about it's ideals of pursuing freedom and happiness, but instead, has given into the ideology of misogyny and hate. Why, you may ask, am I just realizing this? Because two US states have passed laws banning abortion. These states are Texas and Mississippi. A That is 4% of the US. While 4% may not seem like a lot, it is enough to see that misogyny is prevalent in today's society.
When pro-lifers, or should I say pro-misogynists claim that they want the fetus to live, "You're killing a baby, you monster," it makes me livid. There are multiple reasons as to why:
"Life" is different than "birth" -- When someone says that they're pro-life, I have many questions for them. The first one being "Are you really pro-life?" Noting that, "life" is the series of experiences that forms a person from the time that they come out of the womb to the time that they die. If the mother wants to abort a child, it is abundantly clear that she has reasoning. If that reasoning is to protect herself, she's still protecting a life -- her own. Moreover, if that reasoning is that she cannot raise the would-be baby, she is protecting a life. She is preventing the would-be child from living a life that they do not want, nor asked for. Which also helps her, so she can raise a child when she is capable enough. Many will say, "Oh, just put it up for adoption, don't kill it." First off, I would like to say that you cannot kill what is not alive, but more on that later. If you claim that the fetus should develop and then be given into the foster care system, what then? Are you interested in making sure that every child that goes into the system has enough legal, emotional, and financial support throughout their childhood and adulthood? Are you interested in paying those college fees, and buying them their first car? Even more than that, are you interested in adopting the child? No? Because you only wanted it to be born. Pro-lifers are interested in the birth of the child. Not for the child either, mind you, but rather to have a sense that they have a say in what the woman does with her body.
Sentience/Consciousness -- Sentience is defined as the ability to feel, such as feeling pain, or actually feeling the fact that you exist. This, in my opinion, defines personhood, the fact that you are truly able to feel things and be impacted by them. Before this, you are no more a human than, say, a mass of skin cells. The earliest time that fetuses develop sentience is between 18-25 weeks, and even this is only slight sentience in the bottom half of their body. According to statistics, 65% of all abortions performed are within the first eight weeks of pregnancy, and 91% percent are performed within thirteen weeks. Moreover, 1.4% occur after the first 21 weeks. So, it is abundantly clear that fetuses feel nothing when when they are being aborted.
Bodily Autonomy -- If every dead person was required to donate their organs upon the time of their death, imaginably it would save a lot of lives. However, they are not required to do this due to a concept called bodily autonomy, which is defined as one having control of what happens to their body. However, it seems that in the US, corpses have more of this than living women.
Legal Definition of "person" -- Here is the legal definition of a "person." "As used in this section, the term “born alive”, with respect to a member of the species homo sapiens, means the complete expulsion or extraction from his or her mother of that member, at any stage of development, who after such expulsion or extraction breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut, and regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor, cesarean section, or induced abortion" (Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute). This piece of legislature makes it clear that a fetus is not a human. Yet, the governor of Texas says ""Our creator endowed us with the right to life, and yet millions of children lose their right to life every year because of abortion." Noting, that this law also applies to victims of sexual assault. Why, what a beautiful live that child will live knowing that they are the spawn of a rapist and that their mother never wanted them. So, it is abundantly clear that our government officials are neither legally, nor biologically educated. They also clearly don't understand the idea of "secularism."
Fetal Development -- Here is a helpful chart :
A fetus does not become fully developed and gain rights to person hood until 40 weeks of pregnancy. As stated before, due to the usual time that abortions occur, there is no legislature required to prevent abortions due to this simple fact.
6. Secularism -- Secularism is defined as the principle that government decisions and policies are not impacted by any religion. However, this is clearly not the case. Governor Abbott says that children lose the right to life that their "creator" gave them. If that is not religious, I cannot think of anything that could be.
This summarizes my argument on why, excuse the crude language, being pro-life is a load of BS. It is shameful that we have made so many advances all around and yet refuse to advance from the misogynistic beliefs instilled in us by society.
Remember, your voice matters! Use it, and educate yourself!
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