Secular Pro-Life
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet The Team
    • Mission and Vision
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Stances
      • Abortion
      • Religion
      • Contraception
      • The Rape Exception
    • Terms and Conditions
      • Opt-out preferences
  • Content
    • Index
    • Blog
    • Presentations
      • A Secular Case Against Abortion
      • Building Bridges
      • Deconstructing Three Pro-Choice Myths
      • Overlooked Findings of the Turnaway Study
    • Research
      • Abortion Law and Abortion Rates
      • Abortion Law and Pregnancy Rates
      • Later Abortion
      • Embryonic Hearts
    • Collections
      • Becoming Pro-Life
      • They can hear you
      • Parents can hear you
      • Our children’s heartbeats
      • Ask An Atheist
      • LGBTQ and Pro-Life
      • Fixed that meme for you
      • For the biology textbook tells me so
    • Print Materials
      • 100 Pro-Life Sign Ideas
      • Overview of SPL
      • 3 Reasons to tell people you’re pro-life
      • How to talk (not fight) about abortion
      • Bridges PRC Curriculum
      • Fetal Remains Disposition Protocol
      • FAQ handout
      • Presentations overview card
    • Store
  • Contact
  • Get Involved
    • Why support SPL?
    • Donor Opportunities
    • Volunteer Opportunities
    • Volunteer Survey
    • More Surveys
      • Why do you support SPL?
      • Best and Worst Abortion Arguments
      • “Ask An Atheist” Interview
      • Non-Traditional Pro-Life Survey
      • LGBT Pro-Life Survey
      • Parents experiences with prenatal screening
      • Your experiences with adoption
      • Your experiences with processing abortion
  • Donate
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

Syllogism: right to refuse the use of your body doesn’t justify elective abortion

May 12, 2025/in Bodily Rights, Uncategorized /by Monica Snyder

[This article is a transcript of “The right to refuse the use of your body doesn’t justify elective abortion” courtesy of volunteer Ben Tomlin. If you’re interested in volunteering to transcribe more of our content, please complete our volunteer survey.]

(Video also available on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.)

The right to refuse use of your body does not justify putting someone else in a position where they can’t live without use of your body and then killing them, and that means the right to refuse use of your body doesn’t justify elective abortion. Now, that’s the conclusion, but I want to look at this argument in a little bit more detail, especially in the form of a syllogism: so if, if, if, then. There are at least three “if” statements that precede the conclusion.

1. If someone willingly engages in sex, they are risking putting someone else in a position to depend on their body to live

The first “if” is the idea that when someone willingly engages in sex, they are risking putting someone else in a position to depend on their body to live. Some people will push back against that idea by talking about how conception or implantation or these other milestones in reproduction are not within the control of the people who chose to have sex, and therefore they didn’t put someone in a position to depend on their body to live.

[Read more – Consent to Sex is Not Consent to Pregnancy: A Pro-life Woman’s Perspective (Human Defense Initiative)]

2. If abortion is killing (as opposed to letting die)

The second “if” statement is the idea that abortion is killing, if abortion is killing. Some people will argue that it’s not killing, it’s just refusing use of your body, and then the embryo or fetus dies because they aren’t developed enough to survive without the use of your body. So they’ll basically say it’s not killing, it’s letting die.

[Read more – Abortion isn’t just about ending a pregnancy; it’s about killing a fetus.]

3. If abortion is killing someone else (as opposed to something)

The third “if” statement is the idea that abortion is destroying someone else as opposed to something, the idea that abortion is destroying a valuable human being, as opposed to, like, a pre-person or the body of a human being where the mind or the soul hasn’t entered yet. So some people will argue, like, “abortion is not killing someone else. Someone else isn’t depending on your body to live, it’s just an embryo, which isn’t a person.”

[Read more – A Primer on Fetal Personhood and Consciousness]

If all these “if” statements are true, do bodily rights justify abortion?

All three of these “if” statements — the idea that if you have consensual sex, you’re risking someone else depending on your body to live; the idea that abortion is killing something; the idea that abortion is killing someone, a valuable person — all three of those concepts, those are all important discussions worth having. But those are all arguments about the “if” statements, and not the “then” statement.

Remember, the conclusion is that the right to refuse use of your body does not justify putting someone else in a position where they can’t live without use of your body and then killing them. If your response to that is to argue the premises, the “if” statements, that’s fine, but that’s not negating the conclusion. The point of the conclusion is to talk about how the bodily rights argument, the argument that you can refuse the use of your body to other people, it’s not that strong.

Most people will not defend the right to abortion based on bodily rights if they think the other premises are true. They will not say that you can refuse use of your body even if you’re the one that puts someone else in a position where they can’t live without you and then you have to kill them. Most people don’t think that’s justified.


If you appreciate our work and would like to help, one of the most effective ways to do so is to become a monthly donor. You can also give a one time donation here or volunteer with us here.

Related Posts

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
https://i0.wp.com/secularprolife.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/gayatri-malhotra-onNeaouJ7hU-unsplash.jpg?fit=2207%2C3310&ssl=1 3310 2207 Monica Snyder https://secularprolife.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/SecularProlife2.png Monica Snyder2025-05-12 04:38:002025-05-04 12:13:56Syllogism: right to refuse the use of your body doesn’t justify elective abortion

Follow via Email

* indicates required

Categories

  • Ableism
  • Abortion pills
  • Administrative
  • Adoption & Foster Care
  • Biology
  • Bodily Rights
  • Dialogue strategy
  • en español
  • Later Abortion
  • Legislation, laws, & court cases
  • Miscarriage & Pregnancy Loss
  • Personhood
  • Philosophy
  • Pro-Life Demographics
  • Rape Exception
  • Religion
  • Research
  • Speeches, Discussions, Presentations
  • SPL Emails
  • They Can Hear You
  • Top SPL Articles
  • Top SPL Graphics
  • Uncategorized
  • We Asked You Answered
  • Year In Review
  • Your Stories

Archive

It’s crucial that we demonstrate that anyone can–and everyone should–oppose abortion. Thanks to you, we are working to change minds, transform our culture, and protect our prenatal children. Every donation supports our ability to provide nonsectarian, nonpartisan arguments against abortion. Read more details here. Please donate today.

DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
© Copyright 2025 Secular Pro-Life. All rights reserved. Website Design by TandarichGroup

Related Posts

We Asked, You Answered: Stories of your mothers’ strength, compassion,... TOMORROW: Understanding “abortion” across the aisle
Scroll to top
Manage Consent

To provide the best experience, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent may adversely affect certain features and functions.

Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}

Subscribe for Livestream Updates and More

* indicates required

Interests

Want to receive our email newsletter?

We’d be happy to keep in touch. Subscribe for access to our newsletter and other updates.