The 5 Most Common Arguments For Abortion And How To Respond To Them

Since then, the entire nation has been having a conversation about abortion and whether it has any place at all in a civilized society. Most of us grew up simply accepting abortion as something that women deserve and anyone who disagrees must hate women and want to strip them of bodily autonomy. It's easy to get emotional when having discussions about abortion—and understandably so, considering the fact that there are babies' lives on the line. But it doesn't help to get explosively emotional when you're trying to change people's minds about abortion.

The good news is, if you're passionate about eliminating the injustice of abortion, you have science and common sense on your side. Let's walk through the most popular arguments in favor of abortion and break down the best way to respond to them in a way that will make people stop, listen, and hopefully change their position.

#1 Argument for Abortion: My Body, My Choice

This is by far the most popular argument you hear in favor of abortion. Women pull the bodily autonomy card and claim that their rights are being stripped from them if they don't have access to on-demand abortion at all times. "My body, my choice!" is the feminist anthem shouted from the rooftops at every single women's march or pro-abortion rally.

Response: It's Not Your Body

You'd be hard pressed to find a pro-life person who isn't in favor of bodily autonomy. Of course women deserve the right to have control over their own bodies, when they want to have children, etc. But there's one huge flaw with the "my body, my choice" argument: it's not your body. Your body is your body, but your baby's body is a completely different body with its own unique DNA, even if it's located inside of your uterus. It's really that simple.

Your body is your body, but your baby's body is a completely different body with its own unique DNA.

Regardless of what stage of development the baby is in, what the baby looks like, or where the baby is located, you don't get to harm or kill that baby just because you don't want him or her. You can treat your own body however you want, but the argument for bodily autonomy gets thrown out the window when your expression of bodily autonomy harms or kills another human being.

#2 Argument for Abortion: You Can't Force Women To Give Birth

You've probably heard the phrase, "You're not pro-life, you're just pro-birth." People will accuse pro-life activists of only wanting to force women to give birth as if we're living in some sort of dystopian Handmaid's Tale where women are used as slaves to carry children for powerful men. Simply peruse through any social media post about Roe v. Wade and you'll see countless comments about how pro-abortion people think women are being traumatically forced into giving birth. They truly believe that restricting access to abortion is the same thing as forcing a woman to procreate.

Response: There's No Such Thing as Forced Birth

You cannot force someone to give birth any more than you can convince them to digest food, breathe, hear, see, and smell. Birth is a natural bodily function that simply happens as time passes. Of course, there are sad situations in which pregnancy does not naturally end in birth, but that's the exception to the rule. Never accept someone's argument that includes "forced birth" because there simply isn't such a thing.

Birth is a natural bodily function that simply happens as time passes.

What these people are trying to say is that you can't force a woman to have a child if she doesn't want one—and that's actually something that everyone agrees with. Of course, a woman shouldn't be forced into having a child if she doesn't want one. But here's the thing: if you don't feel ready to have children yet, either abstain from sex or responsibly use contraception. Nobody is forcing you to have sex and get pregnant (obviously we're talking about consensual sex, not rape), meaning nobody is forcing you to reproduce. Because once you're pregnant, no matter how early on you are in your pregnancy, the reproduction is done. You already have a baby in your uterus, and nobody forced your body to get to that point. But now that you've arrived at this point, that means you can't just do whatever you want to your baby's body, including and especially killing them because they're unwanted.

#3 Argument for Abortion: Rape Victims Have Been Traumatized

Rape only accounts for 0.5% of all abortions in the U.S. However, pro-abortion activists will often use these statistically rare cases of rape to justify abortion being available to all women at all times. They claim that a woman who has been raped has had her bodily autonomy stolen away from her and she's been put through an immense amount of trauma, and thus she should be able to abort her baby so she doesn't have to go through a pregnancy that will cause further trauma and pain.

Response: A Baby Should Never Pay for the Sins of Their Father

It's incredibly difficult to discuss the topic of rape and pregnancy, especially when you imagine the trauma that survivors of sexual assault go through. Any man who commits such a heinous crime against a woman should be punished to the full extent of the law, and you could argue that our society doesn't have harsh enough punishment for rapists. But why is this a reason to end the life of an innocent baby?

No civilized society should ever be okay with executing an innocent child in order to pay for the sins of their father. This kind of backwards, horrific treatment is exactly what happens in communist North Korea, where a person's next seven generations of family will be tortured, punished, and even killed if that person defects. This is not a practice that we want to take part in.

A baby's worth does not depend on what kind of person their father was.

A woman who has been raped deserves an incredible amount of care from her community and loved ones, but that shouldn't and doesn't include encouraging her to kill the baby in her womb. There are more adults in the U.S. who want to adopt than there are children who need to be adopted. Communities should rally around a rape survivor and help her through all stages of her pregnancy, as well as help her find options of what to do with her child should she choose not to keep it. But killing a baby in the womb just because their father was a criminal isn't something we should support. A child should never pay for the sins of their father, and a baby's worth does not depend on what kind of person their father was.

#4 Argument for Abortion: Kids Will Be Born into Poverty

People argue that because parents live in poverty, they should have easy access to abortion. These same people also try to say that because a child will suffer in the foster care system (where, sadly, abuse does sometimes take place), they shouldn't even be born in the first place. This argument is an easy one to respond to because most people who propose killing babies in the womb because they're not rich have no idea that this very idea is rooted in eugenics.

Response: Killing Babies Because They're Poor Is Rooted in Eugenics

Margaret Sanger, the mother of Planned Parenthood and one of the most famous proponents of abortion in the U.S., rubbed shoulders with many eugenicists (as well as the KKK). The whole purpose of promoting abortion was to control the American population and stop certain groups of people from procreating, including people of color, people living in poverty, and people with disabilities. People who advocate for poor mothers to abort their babies have no idea that they're actually furthering the same exact agenda that the KKK and many eugenicists fought for. Just because someone is born poor doesn't mean they will be poor for the rest of their life—in fact, believing that poverty is genetic is exactly what the eugenicists argued.

One of the most incredible parts of the human experience is that we're able to transcend our suffering and do great things.

Just because a child may suffer in their life doesn't mean their right to life should just be stripped away from them. Everyone is going to suffer in their own way in life, whether they're poor or rich, they have both parents or they're an orphan. One of the most incredible parts of the human experience is that we're able to transcend our suffering and do great things regardless of the pain we've experienced in life. There are many successful, wealthy people who were foster kids, adopted, or even abandoned by their biological parents. Just because they were dealt a bad hand at the start of life doesn't mean they should have been killed.

#5 Argument for Abortion: It's Not a Baby Until It's Born

"It's a fetus, not a baby" is one of the most painful phrases to hear, especially if you're a mother and you know what it's like to feel your baby kicking inside your belly while you're pregnant. People really try to claim that because the baby is still small or doesn't look like a human quite yet, they aren't a human being. Even worse is when people claim that a baby only becomes alive after they've been born, but as long as they're inside the mother's womb they're just a "clump of cells."

Response: Science Disagrees

At the end of the day, we're all clumps of cells. And yes, technically your baby is called a fetus inside your womb, but that doesn't mean it's not a baby and it definitely doesn't mean it's not human. That's why people have baby showers, not fetus showers.

Saying "It's a fetus, not a baby" is just as absurd as saying "It's an adult, not a human."

Science discovered a long, long time ago that your baby has separate DNA at conception and, small though your baby may be, that's a human life. Saying "It's a fetus, not a baby" is just as absurd as saying "It's an adult, not a human." A fetus is a particular stage of human life, and it's just as precious and worthy as any other stage of human life, whether it's a teenager, an adult, or a senior citizen.

Closing Thoughts

If you're passionate about seeing abortion come to an end around the country, you can rest easy that science is on your side. Innocent human life is either worthy of protecting or it isn't. We can't place qualifiers on human life to determine whether it deserves the right to life. It doesn't matter if they have a heartbeat yet, what they look like, or where they're located. It's always objectively wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human.

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