Abortion is one of the most contentious issues on the political landscape today. And yet I, who fancy myself pretty well opinionated on nearly every topic, have never really sat down to form my opinion on abortion.
My resting position is pro-life. I’m a pretty sexually conservative person. I am pro-contraceptive, but if you are having sex, you are taking responsibility for the possibility that another life will enter the equation. And if that happens, you are responsible for that life. That is one of several reasons I am still a virgin at the age of 26. Other reasons include that I live in my parents basement and don’t have a clue how to talk to women.
But when it comes to politics, my goal is to be completely impartial when designing policy. So I did about an hour and a half of research and mediated a debate inside my head. It went something like this:
Pro-Choice: Men don’t get an opinion on abortion. It’s her body.
Pro-Life: Do women get an opinion on men cheating? It’s his body.
Pro-Choice: Women are the ones hurt when men cheat.
Pro-Life: And men aren’t hurt by the loss of a child?
Pro-Choice: Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Early in gestation, it’s just a cluster of cells.
Pro-Life: A cluster of cells that, left alone, would grow into a child with a biological father.
Judge: Overruled. This is a stupid argument. There is no such thing as a topic on which anyone can be denied an opinion. Men get an opinion on abortion.
Pro-Life: Human life begins at conception. As soon as the egg and sperm combine, a unique strand of DNA is formed. A unique strand of DNA is the manual for building a unique human being, one who has the right to exist.
Pro-Choice: Let’s throw some numbers around. For most of human history, the human infant mortality rate was somewhere in the range of 27% and the youth mortality rate was close to 46%. In 2017, the global infant mortality rate was about 3% (OWID). Stillbirth is the death of a fetus between 20 weeks of gestation and birth. Miscarriage is the spontaneous loss of pregnancy between conception and 20 weeks. The United States today has a stillbirth rate of approximately 1% (CDC), while the miscarriage rate is estimated at 10-20%, the range being so large because it’s hard to know how many conceptions are miscarried before the mother even knows she had conceived (Mayo Clinic). The 2018 abortion rate in the United States was about 16% (CDC). This means that, assuming no overlap, there are approximately the same number of deliberately aborted pregnancies as naturally aborted pregnancies in the United States today. Also, a higher percentage of conceptions succeed in producing adult humans today than at any point in human history including current abortion levels.
Pro-Life: I’m not denying that people have always died. I’m arguing that no one should die if we can help it.
Pro-Choice: Let’s assume that the pre-1800 combined miscarriage and stillbirth rate was only 20% That’s 66% of conceptions that failed to produce adult humans. My point is simply that the vast majority of conceptions failing to produce human adults is the rule, not the exception.
Pro-Life: That doesn’t negate the claim that human life begins at conception.
Pro-Choice: Let me throw one more argument at you and see if it sticks. In Vitro Fertilization is a way for doctors to help couples who are struggling to conceive. The IVF process involves collecting 10-20 eggs (arcfertility) and fertilizing 6-12 of them (pacificfertility). Assuming a 100% successful IVF procedure, an average of 5-11 conceptions are discarded. If life begins at conception, IVF is mass murder.
Judge: The law is not an ethereal compendium of moral truths. It is a practical body of rules that all of society must live by. Given the natural and fairly immeasurable fragility of unique strands of human DNA, it is impractical for the law to recognize unique strands of human DNA as sovereign individuals. Overruled.
Pro-Choice: Birth is when the sovereign human being begins life. We don’t celebrate conception day. We celebrate birth day. Up until the umbilical cord is cut, the fetus is a mere part of the woman’s body and subject exclusively to the woman’s will.
Pro-Life: After 3 weeks, the embryo has a beating heart (EHD). After 8 weeks, the embryo becomes a fetus. After 9 weeks, the fetus has functioning eyes and a brain (NIH). After 20 weeks, the fetus can no longer be considered a miscarriage and we enter the stage of periviability. After 24 weeks, the fetus has a 50-70% chance of surviving outside the womb. After 26 weeks, the infant is considered viable with 80-90% chance of surviving (NIH). After 37 weeks, the infant is considered “term”. Generally speaking, healthy standard birth doesn’t occur until weeks 39 or 40 (NIH). Certainly somewhere in there is sufficient development to earn the legal designation of human being.
Pro-Choice: In the United States in 2018, a full 92.2% of abortions were performed in the first trimester, before 13 weeks. 99.1% were performed before 20 weeks (CDC). And, to take a different approach, the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 was statistically linked to a reduction in violent crime. It is conjecture, but evidenced conjecture, that a statistically significant minority of aborted pregnancies would have resulted in violent criminals. And a further statistically significant minority would have resulted in nonviolent criminals (Donohue, Levitt). Therefore, from a political perspective, the precedent established by Roe v. Wade has saved society the costs associated with this plurality of potential criminals.
Pro-Life: Assuming that a fetus is a human life, it’s not very convincing to balance 5,000-10,000 annual murders and 2 million annual arrests (DOJ) at about $35,000/ year in incarceration costs (Vera) against 600,000 annual abortions.
Pro-Choice: And let’s not forget that women can get pretty desperate with an unwanted pregnancy. Immediately before Roe v. Wade, there were an estimated 130,000 illegal abortions per year resulting in 88 abortion-related deaths in 1972 compared to 48 abortion-related deaths in 1974 (Guttmacher).
Pro-Life: And there were almost 19,000 illegal murders in 1972 (DisasterCenter). The fact that many people break the law is not an argument for why the law shouldn’t exist.
Pro-Choice: Well, I think the most significant factor in a democracy is the will of the people. According to a 2019 poll, 77% of respondents, including 59% of self-identified Republicans and 80% of independents, are in favor of keeping at least some abortion legal (NPR).
Judge: From a standpoint of practicality, I think that it would be reasonable to declare federal recognition of the individual human life at viability, 26 weeks and, given the sheer social pressure, to protect the right to safe, legal abortions up to 13 weeks. However, I think some devolution of authority is usually a good compromise. Therefore, while no state may allow medically unnecessary abortion after 26 weeks nor may any state outlaw abortion earlier than 13 weeks, each state may pass its own abortion laws.
Pro-Life: And who decides whether or not to have an abortion? If the parents disagree, we should err on the side of life.
Pro-Choice: And if the mother doesn’t want to bear the child? She should be forced to go through with the pain of birth?
Pro-Life: The father has a 50% genetic stake in the child, therefore has 50% rights to see that child grow up. I wouldn’t be opposed to releasing the mother from any obligation to the child after birth.
Pro-Choice: Still, if it’s the father who doesn’t want to be a father, he doesn’t have to give birth. The woman does. How can you force a woman to go through that?
Pro-Life: The biology is the way it is. You can’t claim that the man has less than equal rights over the child just because of inequality in the birth process.
Pro-Choice: We’re not talking about rights over the child. We’re talking about rights to the fetus which exists within the woman and the woman has 100% responsibility for up until birth. Once the child is born, the man has 50% rights over the child. But just for the period of gestation, let’s be fair and say the woman is only 3/4 responsible for that period. That gives her a 3:4 vote advantage. Obviously it would be ideal if the parents were able to come to an agreement over what to do. But ultimately, on the question of abortion, the decision must lie with the mother.
Judge: The man has 100% full rights over his genetic material. The man has 100% full rights to choose a custodian for that genetic material. But, having deposited his genetic material with a custodian, it is fair to say that the custodian has been entrusted with custody for the 40 week period of gestation. The final decision over abortion is ultimately with the mother with no legal recourse to appeal. So pro-life men, select the custodian of your genetic material with care.
Abortion is a terrible thing. It’s a bad choice made after a series of bad choices have left you with no good ones available. That is my position on abortion.
