Freedom of religion doesn’t justify abortion

[Esta publicación está disponible en español aquí.]

Earlier this year Ana Kasparian of the Young Turks gave a quick rant about how the Bible has no say in what women can do with their bodies. Here is our response in video form with transcription below.

Ana Kasparian clip:

I don’t care that you’re a Christian. I don’t care what the Bible says.

Our response:

Yeah, I’m not a Christian. I’m an atheist. And I don’t care what the Bible says either.

Abortion kills human organisms. That’s not belief; that’s biology. It is a belief to say that human organisms are valuable human beings from the beginning. I’ll grant you that. It’s also a belief to say that they’re not, and to say that they are in fact so irrelevant that it’s okay to kill them for any reason. It’s a belief to say that abortion should be legal at any stage in pregnancy and that even viable, healthy fetuses should be legal to kill. That’s a belief.

[Read more – Study: Is third-trimester abortion exceptional?]

And if you don’t think abortion should be legal at any stage for any reason – just at certain points and in certain circumstances – that’s also a belief. And you’re also arguing that we should have a legal infrastructure based on your belief.

And it is not enough for you to say “Well, everyone has different beliefs, so we should leave it to everyone to privately decide.” If someone believed that newborn children are so irrelevant that they’re okay to kill, I doubt you would say “Well, I believe differently than them but everyone needs to privately decide.”

Abortion is a human rights issue in both directions. The pro-choice side is primarily focused on women’s human rights of bodily autonomy and equality. The pro-life side is primarily focused on the human right to not be unjustly killed – even if we are not born yet. When people are concerned about human rights violations, it is never going to be enough for you to say that everyone needs to decide privately and mind their own business. That’s never going to work.

So yeah, I get that you don’t care what the Bible says, and you don’t care what Christians think about how they should live their lives according to Christianity. I don’t either.

That does nothing to resolve the questions about the abortion debate, because this isn’t about religion. You’re right. It’s about concerns over human rights violations, which anybody can be concerned about whether they are religious or not.

In other words: I don’t care that you don’t care if people are Christians. I don’t care that you don’t care what the Bible says. Abortion kills humans. You need to actually justify it, not just go on irrelevant tangents about freedom of religion and separation of church and state. Freedom of religion doesn’t justify human rights violations. That’s not an argument. Do better.