Abortion is a conflict of rights issue between the fetus’ right to life and the woman’s right to bodily autonomy. When our rights come into conflict with another person’s rights, one has to win over the other. There are plenty of laws in place that restrict a person’s bodily autonomy: you must wear seatbelts in a car, we can’t consume alcohol in certain locations, we can’t stand up when our plane is taking off. If you were to use “My Body, My Choice” to justify breaking those laws, you wouldn’t be taken seriously. We generally agree that people have the right to refuse the use of their own body to someone else who wants to use it, but pregnancy is different. In 99% of unplanned pregnancies, both parties willingly engaged in the very action they knew might result in the creation of an inherently needy child. Bodily autonomy is an extremely important right, but it doesn’t give someone the right to kill another person – especially a person they put in that situation as a direct result of the action they willingly consented to. Even if they didn’t willingly engage in the action, a person still does not have the right to kill an innocent human being.

Rape is a horrific crime, and the rapist should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Women who are survivors of rape need care, support, healing, and community. Abortion can never undo the violence that has been committed. Instead, abortion subjects the woman and her child to yet another form of violence. Under current law, rapists aren’t allowed to be sentenced to the death penalty. Putting the child to death gives more rights to the rapist than the child conceived from his crime. Our value as humans does not come from the circumstances of our conception. No one should be devalued for the crimes of their biological father.

Bernard Nathanson, the co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League and a key driver of legalized abortion, admitted to fabricating the myth of the back-alley crisis. “When we spoke of the [mass statistics], it was always 5,000 to 10,000 [women dying to self-induced abortion] a year,” Nathanson wrote. He later estimated that the actual number of maternal deaths was around 500. Legal or not, abortions are never safe. According to University of Michigan Clinical Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology Elizabeth Shadigian, one in 10 women experiences immediate complications (20% of which are life threatening) following an abortion. Complications include infection, hemorrhage, pulmonary or amniotic fluid embolism, injury to the reproductive organs and other internal organs, hospitalization, possible hysterectomy, future premature birth, placenta previa, and even death. According to research from the British Journal of Psychiatry, post-abortive women face an 81% increased risk of mental health problems. Even after factoring in numerous demographic considerations, post-abortive women were found to be significantly more likely to face depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and abuse of drugs and/or alcohol. When the goal of a procedure is to intentionally end a person’s life, it is impossible for it to be safe. Since abortions have been legalized, it has taken more than 63 million lives in the United States alone. Outlawing abortion cannot possibly do more harm than it already has done.

You don’t have to be religious to recognize that life begins at conception. According to a 2018 academic study by University of Chicago researcher Dr. Steven Jacobs, 95% of biologists (including supermajorities of scientists who self-identify as “pro-choice” or “liberal”) affirm that life begins at fertilization. Our existence is a result of conception, and conception always results in a baby. At the moment of fertilization, a single, unique, unrepeatable, living human being is created. How do we know it is living? The embryo is constantly growing as cell division takes place, and it’s processing nutrition; neither of these biological processes happen when something is nonliving. How do we know it is human? A preborn child has a human genome – twenty-three pairs of distinctly human chromosomes composed of uniquely human DNA. A living creature cannot transform into a different species. A simple change in location from the womb into the outside world cannot turn a nonhuman creature into a human being.

Even if you deny science, our society claims to recognize the inherent value of a person’s life. You see this manifest when we fight racism, sexism, or any other form of discrimination. If all life is not valuable, who gets to decide who deserves to live or die? Dehumanization has historically led to violence. Regardless of what religion we practice, we should be protecting the lives of the innocent and defenseless.

The Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade in 1973. The 7 men forming the majority claimed a “constitutional right to privacy” includes a woman’s ability to end the life of her child through all 9 months of pregnancy. Justice Harry Blackmun wrote the Roe v. Wade opinion but admitted: “If prenatal personhood is established, the case for abortion collapses. For the fetus’ right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the 14th amendment.” What is the 14th amendment?

“No state may deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

This poses the question: Are preborn children persons within the original public meaning of the 14th amendment?

What is the definition of ‘person’ according to the 14th amendment?

Webster’s dictionary in 1864 said a person was: A living human being, a man, woman, or child, or an individual of the human race. Children in the womb are human; therefore, they’re people.

What is the proper understanding of the amendment?

If preborn children are human (which science tells us they are) then they are also people who demand complete protection under the Constitution. As Justice Hugo later put it, “The history of the amendment proves that the people were told that its purpose was to protect weak and helpless human beings.”

Many examples given by pro-abortion activists of women going to jail after a miscarriage involve illegal drug use by the mother which is considered child abuse. The law is not targeting innocent mothers experiencing a tragic loss of life. Abortion is the direct and intentional murder of a child through tearing the limbs off of, crushing the skulls of, and poisoning a living child to death. This is what we’re trying to stop. The truth is – legally and morally – treatment for a miscarriage, pre viable separation when a mother’s life is in immediate danger, and ectopic pregnancies are not abortions and have never and will never be treated in such a way by the law.

The official “age of viability” is currently set at 24 weeks (even though babies have survived outside the womb earlier than that – the current record is 21 weeks and 5 days). So what changes between 24 weeks and 23 weeks and 6 days? Once the clock strikes midnight, does the fetus suddenly become a baby? No matter what time you point to during the 9 months of pregnancy, the child will always be a living human being. Arbitrarily drawing a line at a specific age a person needs to reach in order to secure their right to life is dangerous, inconsistent, and unreasonable.

A disability should not be a death sentence. In the US, it’s estimated that 60–90% of preborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. We can’t say we want a more inclusive world for people with disabilities while supporting a practice that seeks to destroy them. This is a form of eugenics, where certain lives are seen as less worthy. Life expectancy for people with Down syndrome has risen from 10 years old in the 1960s to 60 today, showing how much things can change with care. Normalizing the killing of those who face greater challenges reduces human worth to productivity, rather than recognizing the inherent dignity every life holds. The answer is not to eliminate them but to care for them and continue improving the support and treatments that help them thrive.

This is false. There are an estimated 2 million couples waiting to adopt – which means there are 36 waiting families for every one child who is placed for adoption. If we outlawed abortion, most children would find a loving family. Very few kids would go into the foster care system. But even if that wasn’t the case, we should never kill a person because they might have a difficult life. Life offers no guarantees, but abortion offers no chances.

There are more than 2,700 Pregnancy Resource Centers across America. That’s more than 3x the number of abortion facilities. Only 17% of Pregnancy Resource Centers receive federal or state funding – which means that 83% of Pregnancy Resource Centers depend on their pro-life communities and generous donors to establish and sustain them in order to serve families in need. Pregnancy Resource Centers often offer FREE pregnancy testing, STI testing, ultrasounds, counseling, adoption aid, financial aid, diapers, formula, maternity and baby clothes, housing support, parenting classes, and much more – all while abortion facilities profit from killing the innocent babies of distressed mothers. We care about life before and after birth.

To find a Pregnancy Resource Center near you, visit lifelinks.io/centers

People who claim to be “personally pro-life” in an effort to be empathetic towards other views are perpetuating a culture that devalues life. If you are “personally pro-life” because you know abortion kills a child, you should be against every abortion. You would never say: “I’m personally opposed to child abuse, but I can’t take away another person’s right to abuse children.” It is impossible to be just “personally pro-life.” Either the fetus is not a human person and has no moral significance, or they are an innocent human being, and nothing could ever justify intentionally ending their life. We either believe in the right to life of all humans, or we don’t.

Mifepristone (the first abortion pill) not only intends to kill a baby every time it's used, but is a dangerous drug to be distributing to women and girls with no safeguards like in-person doctor visits and prior sonograms. This pill has no effect on ectopic pregnancies which puts them at greater risk for serious and life-threatening complications. Without a doctor visit, the gestational age can be badly miscalculated leading to further complications. This drug is linked to over 4,000 serious complications; however, under the Obama administration, the FDA stopped requiring non-fatal complications to be reported so the actual numbers are certainly much higher. Women and girls are being lied to about the safety of this drug.

Women should never be forced to become pregnant. When a woman is already pregnant, however, she is pregnant with a unique, unrepeatable, living, human being who has already come into existence from the moment of fertilization. The pro-life movement aims to protect innocent human life by fighting for the rights of the preborn and supporting women through their pregnancies. We are pro-life and not pro-forced-birth because we’re saying that killing another innocent person is not the solution to our problems. Our society is full of laws that “force” you NOT to do things that harm others. Saying “you can’t kill” is not the same as forcing you to do something.

Abortionists themselves will tell you that late-term abortions are not even mostly for medical reasons. A study by two pro-choice researchers in 2013 found that there was no significant difference between the reasons people were having abortions early or late in pregnancy. Then in 2022, one of those researchers was published again saying, “The circumstances that lead to someone needing a 3rd-trimester abortion are not exceptional.” Some reasons listed for later abortions include not having the resources to get an abortion earlier like money, time, or transportation. Some women had a change in circumstance like a dispute with the father or a loss in financial stability. Some women didn’t know they were pregnant sooner due to a form of contraception or health condition that masks pregnancy symptoms. According to the Arizona Department of Health Services’ 2021 abortion reporting, 91% of late-term abortions were for non-medical reasons. If you look at all the annual reports available, that number comes out to about 80%. The idea that late-term abortions are only done for medical emergencies is a myth.

Unfortunately, this is not true. Despite abortion being illegal, places like Planned Parenthood continue to refer women out of state for abortions or point them to websites where they can get abortion pills mailed directly to their doorstep. Abortion pills can be delivered to any state without a prescription or doctor’s visit – you don’t even need to be pregnant. This creates serious concerns, including the potential for abuse, where someone could obtain and administer these drugs without a woman’s knowledge. As access becomes more hidden and immediate, it becomes much harder to reach women with life-affirming alternatives. While we’re grateful for pro-life laws, they alone won’t end abortion if our culture continues to devalue human life. Ultimately, we must work toward a society where abortion is not only illegal, but unthinkable.

This scenario isn’t comparable to pregnancy. In the case of donating blood after an accident, the need isn’t a foreseeable result of your actions. But with consensual sex, the possibility of pregnancy is a known and foreseeable outcome, and the child’s dependence on the mother’s body is part of that reality. Pregnancy doesn’t force you to rescue a stranger, it’s the natural continuation of a life that already exists because of those actions. You also have the option in both scenarios to do nothing, but what that means is very different. For blood donations, “doing nothing” allows the person to remain in their dying state. In pregnancy, “doing nothing” allows the child to continue developing as they naturally would. Abortion isn’t just refusing aid; it’s an active intervention that violently ends the life of a developing human being.

Who someone saves in a crisis does not determine the value or rights of the one they couldn’t save. In real life, people often make tragic decisions under pressure using a kind of triage — prioritizing based on urgency or likelihood of survival, not worth. You could even change the scenario to choosing between a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old, and see that either way, it’s a heartbreaking loss, not a statement that one life is more valuable. But fortunately, pregnancy is not typically a triage situation. We’re not forced to choose one life over another, and in most cases, it is possible to care for both. That’s why the question of who we might save in an emergency is very different from the question of whether both lives deserve equal protection and dignity in the first place.

Every pro-life law in the U.S. includes clear exceptions to protect the life of the mother. Treating ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, or life-threatening complications is not the same as elective abortion and is never criminalized under these laws. What truly endangers women is the false narrative that abortion is their only option. True care means offering women support, medical resources, and compassionate alternatives that protect both mother and child. Pro-life policies aim to value both lives – not sacrifice one for the other. When we support women with real healthcare and real choices, we can protect lives without resorting to ending them.

Pro-life advocates don’t believe one life should be elevated over the other, but that both the mother and her preborn child deserve protection and compassion. Every pregnancy involves two human beings, and recognizing the rights of the preborn doesn’t erase the rights of the mother – it simply calls us to seek solutions that respect and preserve life for both. Intentionally killing an innocent human being is not a solution, and it is never okay. While bodily autonomy is an extremely important right, it is not absolute – especially when the life of another human being is at stake.

Healthcare is meant to preserve and protect life – not intentionally end it. While true healthcare treats both the pregnant woman and her child as patients deserving of care, abortion deliberately ends the life of a developing human being. Unlike other medical procedures, abortion does not heal a disease or injury; it terminates a separate human life, often for social or economic reasons. Calling it healthcare blurs the moral and biological reality that another distinct life is involved.

How many have you rescued from trafficking? It's not hypocritical to recognize a human rights issue without personally taking on every possible response to it. There are many injustices — like human trafficking or abuse — that we can clearly oppose without each individual being required to directly solve them in the most hands-on way, and we don’t say someone can’t care unless they do so. People live out their moral convictions in different ways: some adopt, which is beautiful, while others support women through pregnancy centers, advocacy, or walking alongside them in difficult situations. No single person can do everything, but everyone can do something, and recognizing the dignity of human life is where that begins. Not where it ends.