Where the ‘my body, my choice’ argument fails

For abortion advocates, the issue of abortion boils down to bodily autonomy. Proponents of abortion say that since the baby resides within the mother’s body, the mother should be allowed to get an abortion and remove it if she so chooses. Her body, her choice — except there’s a big problem with that argument: the baby isn’t part of her body.

Human beings have certain unalienable rights, as enumerated under our Declaration of Independence. First and foremost among these is the right to life. But our rights and freedoms end when they infringe on the human rights of another person, or cause serious harm to another human being.

Abortion is, therefore, not an issue of a woman’s choice, but of civil rights. When people are deprived of their basic human rights, their civil rights are violated. Preborn babies are deprived of their right to life, the most basic right of all, simply because of their location in the mother’s womb and their developmental status. Far from being a human right, abortion is a discriminatory and cruel civil rights violation of the most vulnerable among us.

A conjoined twin does not have the option of killing the other twin, even though their bodies are connected. Certain things, such as drinking and driving, are illegal because they endanger other people. People are allowed to make decisions for themselves—they can even behave recklessly— but they are not allowed to put other people’s lives at risk.

Abortion advocates are right in that women can do (almost) whatever they want with their own bodies. They can dye their hair and wear makeup; if they’re 18, they can get tattoos and pierce their ears. But a preborn baby is not just an extension of the mother’s body. The child in the womb is a unique human being with the right to life.

In order to understand why “my body, my choice” is a fallacy, we have to understand the inherent humanity of the preborn child. Science and reason affirm that abortion, by its very nature, destroys another human being. Former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino describes the prevalent second trimester abortion procedure in the following video:

Science makes it clear that life begins at the moment of fertilization. Scientists have been able to pinpoint the exact moment new human life is created, by capturing the bright flash of light that is emitted as the sperm meets the egg.

At that moment, as soon as the preborn baby is created, there now exists a separate, unique human with his or her own DNA – different from the mother’s or father’s. It is at this moment, the very moment of creation, that we know the preborn baby is a separate being. If the baby was part of the mother’s body, then there shouldn’t be a difference in DNA, but there is.

At 21 days from conception, the baby has a heartbeat. Just a few weeks later, there are measurable brain waves. Remarkable developments are made in the first trimester; if the baby is a girl, her ovaries and uterus are already formed by 10 weeks. The baby has fingernails and her own unique fingerprints, which no other human being will ever share. Before the first trimester is over, a preborn baby has grown all of the organs with which he or she will be born.

Science tells us that the humanity of preborn babies is a simple, biological fact. So if we know that preborn babies are human beings, then “my body, my choice” no longer applies. The mother who chooses abortion isn’t removing a cancerous growth from her body, nor a lock of hair or a fingernail. It’s a separate, living human being with a right to life.

Women may be able to do what they want with their own bodies, but their rights end when another person’s human rights begin. “My body, my choice” is a fallacious statement because a woman’s child isn’t part of the woman’s body, and she is putting that child not only at risk of bodily harm, but is choosing death for him or her.

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