Abortion Debate Index
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Contents
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Biology
Regarding when life begins
Biologically there’s no consensus on when life begins.
- Deconstructing Three Pro-Choice Myths: 1. Biologically, we don’t know when human life begins.
- (Charlotte Lozier Institute) A Scientific View of When Life Begins
- (Social Science Research Network) Biologists’ Consensus on ‘When Life Begins’
- Even very pro-choice biologists acknowledge a human life begins at fertilization.
- Steve Jacobs’ survey about human life cycles (TikTok)
- Collection: For the Biology Textbook Tells Me So
- Mammalian life cycles begin at fertilization (TikTok)
- Does “life begin at conception”? (TikTok)
What do we mean by “alive”? Are viruses alive?
A zygote isn’t “alive” yet. Many zygotes don’t even implant.
Embryos are like sperm, eggs, or skin cells.
- Human Beings Begin as Zygotes: Refutations to 8 Common Pro-Choice Arguments: Q8. Skin cells are human! (en español aquí)
- The zygote is the beginning of the human life cycle: everyday examples.
- “Unique DNA” isn’t exactly the point
- “The fetus isn’t an individual. It’s science.” (TikTok)
- The Case Against Abortion: Human Organisms (YouTube)
- The pro-choice view survives on widespread ignorance of biology (en español aquí)
- Collection: Fixed That Meme For You – chicken for breakfast
- Collection: Fixed That Meme For You – Is this a chicken?
What about twinning?
Regarding fetal development
Embryos don’t have hearts or heartbeats.
- Research: Embryonic Hearts
- Responding to 7 pro-choice claims about embryonic hearts
- Embryos have hearts (TikTok)
- Embryos have blood circulation by week 6 (TikTok)
- People care about embryonic hearts (TikTok)
- Our children’s heartbeats
Ultrasounds are just detecting electrical activity, not heartbeats.
- Opponents of heartbeat bills don’t understand how ultrasounds work
- Ultrasounds detect embryonic heart movement (TikTok)
A 9 week embryo isn’t even visible to the naked eye.
- Guardian article “What a pregnancy actually looks like” erases embryos
- The Guardian article “What a pregnancy actually looks like” (TikTok)
- Pro-choice women who have miscarried are outraged by The Guardian
Embryos are parasites.
- Some differences between embryos and parasites. (en español aquí)
- The fetus isn’t a parasite. Stop pathologizing pregnancy.
- No, embryos aren’t parasites (TikTok)
- Our miscarried children weren’t parasites.
- Fetomaternal microchimerism (TikTok and blog post)
- “It’s the literal definition of a parasite.” (TikTok)
- “The scientific FACT that fetuses are parasites” (TikTok)
Fetuses can’t feel pain.
- Fetal Pain in the First Trimester
- Fetal Pain in the First Trimester (TikTok)
- (Journal of Medical Ethics) Reconsidering Fetal Pain
- “Anesthesia during fetal surgery isn’t for pain” (TikTok)
Regarding miscarriage compared to abortion
- “If you’ve had a miscarriage, you’ve had an abortion.” (TikTok)
- The phrase “spontaneous abortion” is not pro-choice propaganda. (TikTok and blog post)
- Our cultural gaslighting of women who miscarry before 20 weeks
- Is a D&C for a missed miscarriage an abortion? (TikTok)
- “Everyone loves someone who has had an abortion” (TikTok)
- Pro-abortion ideology strips compassion from miscarriage care
Personhood
You aren’t a person until…
…you’re viable/can live independently/don’t require someone else’s body to live.
- Viability = personhood?
- Viability is the least plausible definition of personhood (TikTok)
- (Equal Rights Institute) Why viability is the least plausible definition of personhood
…you have consciousness.
- A Primer on Fetal Personhood and Consciousness
- Embryos & metaphysical personhood: both biology & philosophy support the pro-life case. (en español aquí)
- Consciousness-based personhood doesn’t justify abortion (TikTok)
- “Pulling the plug on a brain dead person is ok” (TikTok)
- Abortion: A Topic that Divides the Masses (YouTube)
- Do pro-choicers think preemies are people? (TikTok)
…you have self-awareness.
- Personhood based on human cognitive abilities.
- (Journal of Medical Ethics) After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?
If life begins at conception…
…what does that imply about IVF?
- Human Beings Begin as Zygotes: Refutations to 8 Common Pro-Choice Arguments: Q3 In Vitro Fertilization (en español aquí)
- What do you call the embryos conceived through IVF, then destroyed?
- (Rehumanize International) Embryo Destruction
- (Equal Rights Institute) Selective Reduction
…why don’t people mourn miscarriage?
- Our cultural gaslighting of women who miscarry before 20 weeks
- Our miscarried children weren’t parasites
- No, embryos aren’t parasites (TikTok)
- Embryos, parasites, and pregnancy loss (TikTok)
- When miscarriage is an emotional crisis, medical professionals can help.
- Processing reproductive grief as an atheist (TikTok)
- (Little Souls At Rest Foundation) Burial process and options for pregnancy loss before 20 weeks
- (Through the Heart) Comfort Kits Program
- On miscarriage (SPL YouTube playlist)
Are you a vegan?
- “Every animal is more sentient than an embryo” (TikTok)
- Why would atheists value human life over other animal life? (TikTok)
- (Vegans for Preborn Rights) Why pro-life?
The Burning IVF Lab thought experiment
Other general personhood discussions
- Harry Potter explains how fetuses are people
- Arguments Against Fetal Personhood (discusses speciesism, gradualism, threshold arguments, functionalism)
- Why artificial wombs pose a challenge to pro-choice personhood arguments
- Pro-Choicers’ Persistent Infant Problem: A Reply to Boonin
- Pro-Choicers’ Persistent Infant Problem, Part 2: A Reply to DeGrazia
- (Equal Rights Institute) The most undervalued argument in the prolife movement
- The Case Against Abortion: Personhood and Infanticide (YouTube)
- Personhood (SPL YouTube playlist)
Bodily Rights
Bodily Rights (SPL YouTube playlist)
It’s my body; I can do what I want with it.
- (Equal Rights Institute) Autumn in the Sovereign Zone: Why “it’s my body, I can do what I want” won’t do
- “Abortion doesn’t kill humans, it just refuses to save them” (TikTok)
It doesn’t matter if the fetus is a person or not, because no person has the right to use your body against your will.
- McFall v. Shimp and Thomson’s Violinist don’t justify the vast majority of abortions. (en español aquí)
- (Justice For All) De facto guardian and abortion: a response to the strongest violinist
- The Case Against Abortion: Bodily Rights (YouTube)
- “Do you support requiring people to donate their kidneys?” (TikTok)
- Abortion isn’t like refusing to donate a kidney (TikTok)
- “No person can use your body against your will” (TikTok)
- “It doesn’t matter if the fetus is a human being or not” (TikTok)
- “You can shoot someone who refuses to leave your property” (TikTok)
- “Where is the right to use and occupy another’s body?” (TikTok)
- “Abortion is defending yourself” (TikTok)
- Collection: Fixed That Meme For You – It doesn’t matter
- Collection: Fixed That Meme For You – Fun fact
Abortion isn’t about killing; it’s about ending a pregnancy.
- Abortion isn’t just about ending a pregnancy; it’s about killing a fetus.
- It’s not about bodily autonomy. Here’s how we know.
- Feticide before termination of pregnancy (TikTok)
- Artificial wombs and the right to not be a biological mother (TikTok)
- Later abortion isn’t just birth (TikTok)
- “There’s no such thing as late-term abortion. That’s called ‘birth.'” (TikTok)
- “Late-term abortion is called having a baby” (TikTok)
- “Abortion isn’t about killing” (TikTok)
Consent to sex is not consent to pregnancy
- Child Support
- (Equal Rights Institute) Is Consent to Sex Consent to Pregnancy? (YouTube)
- (Human Defense Initiative) Consent to Sex is Not Consent to Pregnancy: A Pro-life Woman’s Perspective
Outlawing abortion leaves women with fewer rights than a corpse.
The “Hard” Cases
What about when her life is in danger?
- “Do you support abortion when her life is in danger?” (TikTok)
- I’m an emergency physician. Pro-life laws don’t threaten my patients.
- (Charlotte Lozier Institute) Abortion Policy Allows Physicians to Intervene to Protect a Mother’s Life
- What counts as “reasonable medical judgement”? (TikTok)
- (Equal Rights Institute) Abortion and Medical Necessity: Improving the Pro-Life Approach
What about when there are fetal anomalies?
- Why does prenatal testing exist? Perspectives from a parent of a child with Down syndrome
- What’s so special about eugenic abortion: a Down syndrome parent sends notes from the battlefield
- Pressuring women to abort after prenatal diagnosis (TikTok)
- A Pro-Life Introduction to Perinatal Hospice
- The importance of being a parent when children won’t live long after birth
- Collection: They can hear you.
- Collection: Parents can hear you.
What about when she was raped?
Please note Secular Pro-Life does not take an official position on whether abortion restrictions ought to include an exception for rape. We detail our reasoning here.
- The 11 year old who gave birth in Missouri (TikTok)
- (Equal Rights Institute) Responding to the question of rape with wisdom and compassion
- (Rehumanize International) On The Rape Exception
- Misconceptions about the rape exception
- (Georgetown Law) Giving birth to a “Rapist’s Child”: a discussion and analysis of the limited legal protections afforded to women who become mothers through rape
Effects of Abortion Restrictions
On women
Denying women abortion will destroy women’s lives.
- Five years later, 96% of women denied abortion no longer wish they could have had one. (Turnaway Study) (en español aquí)
- Turnaway Study: Women denied abortion no longer wish they’d aborted (TikTok)
- 96% of women denied abortion no longer wish they’d aborted (TikTok)
- The Turnaway Study and women’s economic outcomes (TikTok)
Women won’t be able to get treatment for ectopic pregnancy.
- Responding to 16 pro-choice claims about Dobbs, the pro-life movement, and abortion bans: 1. Abortion bans mean women won’t be able to get treatment for ectopic pregnancy.
- Treatment for Ectopic Pregnancy is Not Abortion
- Pro-lifers oppose elective abortion, not treatment of ectopic pregnancy. (TikTok)
- No, Missouri is not outlawing treatment for ectopic pregnancy
- Are women being denied treatment for ectopic pregnancy? (TikTok)
Women won’t be able to get life-saving abortions.
- Does Texas law force women to carry their dead babies? (TikTok)
- Responding to 16 pro-choice claims about Dobbs, the pro-life movement, and abortion bans: 4. Abortion bans mean women won’t be able to get abortions when their lives are in danger.
- I’m an emergency physician. Pro-life laws don’t threaten my patients.
Women will be prosecuted for miscarriage.
Women will be prosecuted for abortion.
- Why penalties for illegal abortion should not focus on the woman
- (Equal Rights Institute) Should women be prosecuted for illegal abortions?
- (Americans United for Life) Why the States did not prosecute women for abortion before Roe v. Wade
- (Rehumanize International) Life after Roe: A Restorative Justice Proposal
Abortion is 14 times safer than childbirth.
- (Dr. Calum Miller) Abortion and maternal mortality
- (Equal Rights Institute) Is Abortion 14 Times Safer Than Childbirth?
- Keisha Atkins wrongful death lawsuit (TikTok)
On children
Abortion bans mean more children will be born unwanted.
- When women can’t get abortions, what happens to the children they birth?
- Turnaway Study and maternal bonding (TikTok)
- Abortion bans don’t lead to a surplus of unwanted children.
- Abortion bans don’t lead to a surplus of unwanted children (TikTok)
What about all the children in the foster care system?
Later abortions are for medical emergencies.
- Research: Later Abortion
- “Why do you care when abortions happen?” (TikTok)
- Five reasons later abortion is worth talking about
- Deconstructing Three Pro-Choice Myths: 2. Most or all late-term abortions are medical emergencies.
- Study: Is third-trimester abortion exceptional?
- Even third trimester abortions are done for non-medical reasons.
- My appointment for an abortion at 28 weeks
- 80% of abortions in Arizona at 21 weeks or later weren’t for medical reasons (TikTok)
- Pregnancy recognition and late-term abortion (TikTok)
- “Is Third Trimester Abortion Exceptional?” (TikTok)
- Couple says they had to abort a stranger’s baby (TikTok)
- Do people support abortion “up until birth”? (TikTok)
- Late-term abortion (SPL YouTube playlist)
On society
Abortion restrictions don’t decrease abortions.
- Research: Abortion Laws and Abortion Rates
- Research: Abortion Laws and Pregnancy Rates
- When abortion is restricted more people use contraception (TikTok)
- Abortion laws decrease abortion rates internationally, but high unintended pregnancy rates can mask this effect (en español aquí)
- Deconstructing Three Pro-Choice Myths: 3. Abortion restrictions don’t stop abortions.
- Pro-choice states have just as many unintended pregnancies, and far more abortions
- “Abortion restrictions don’t decrease the frequency” (TikTok)
- “Legalizing abortion decreases abortion” (TikTok)
Abortion restrictions are imposing Christian religious views on everyone else
- Abortion restrictions should survive religious liberty lawsuits (TikTok)
- Why the Religious Freedom Argument for Abortion is Doomed
- Religious Liberty Justifications for Violence: A Legal Analysis (YouTube)
- If SCOTUS wants to stay out of religious debates, it should overturn Roe v. Wade
- Freedom of religion doesn’t justify abortion (en español aquí)
- Freedom of religion doesn’t justify abortion (speech) (TikTok)
The Turnaway Study
- The Turnaway Study and women’s economic outcomes (TikTok)
- Five years later, 96% of women denied abortion no longer wish they could have had one. (Turnaway Study) (en español aquí)
- Women say they grieve but don’t regret abortion. Is that a contradiction?
- When women can’t get abortions, what happens to the children they birth?
- Turnaway Study and maternal bonding (TikTok)
- Turnaway Study book re: maternal bonding (TikTok)
- (Linacre Quarterly) The Embrace of the Proabortion Turnaway Study
- The Turnaway Study (SPL YouTube Playlist)
Stereotypes of Pro-Lifers
You’re not pro-life; you’re anti-choice.
- “You’re not pro-life, you’re anti-choice” (TikTok)
- Anti-Which-Choice? (TikTok)
Pro-lifers are pushing their religious views on everyone else.
- Interview series: Ask a Pro-Life Atheist
- Collection: Ask an Atheist
- You don’t have to be religious to value prenatal life (TikTok)
- “You’re pushing your views on everyone else” (TikTok)
- “You’re pro-life views are inherently religious” (TikTok)
- “The Bible Has No Say In What Women Can Do With Their Bodies” (TikTok)
- 7 things pro-lifers wish our pro-choice friends understood about us: 1c. We’re not all religious.
- Statistics demonstrating you don’t have to be religious to be pro-life
- Christopher Hitchens Wound Up Opposing Abortion Choice
- Why Secular People Should Care About Abortion (PDF brochure)
- On religion (SPL YouTube playlist)
No uterus, no opinion/Men shouldn’t be making laws about women’s bodies.
- Debunking the Equal Protection claim to abortion rights
- Research: Abortion Views and Gender
- Women are as likely as men to oppose abortion (TikTok)
- “No uterus, no opinion”
- So is it also “yes uterus yes opinion”? (TikTok)
- Responding to 16 pro-choice claims about Dobbs, the pro-life movement, and abortion bans: 11. Abortion bans are about men making laws to control women’s bodies.
- 7 things pro-lifers wish our pro-choice friends understood about us: 1f. We’re not all men.
- Hi. We exist. – XOXO Pro-Life Women
- Collection: Fixed That Meme For You – If men could get pregnant
- “If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.” (TikTok)
- Abortion affects men too (TikTok)
Pro-lifers hate women.
- 7 things pro-lifers wish our pro-choice friends understood about us: 2. We’re not anti-woman.
- Reasons pro-choicers have claimed that I, a woman, am against abortion (TikTok)
Pro-life women hate themselves/are internalized misogynists.
- Hi. We exist. – XOXO Pro-Life Women
- “Why do you hate yourself so much?” (TikTok)
- “The anti-choice woman centers men” (TikTok)
- Reasons pro-choicers have claimed that I, a woman, am against abortion (TikTok)
- “There’s nothing worse than a pro-birth woman” (TikTok)
Pro-lifers are right wing extremists.
- How many Democrats are pro-life?
- 7 things pro-lifers wish our pro-choice friends understood about us: 1e. We’re not all Republican.
- (PAAU) Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising
- (DFLA) Democrats for Life of America
- (The Atlantic) The Progressive Roots of the Pro-Life Movement
Pro-lifers are anti-sex/want to control people’s sex lives.
- It’s about the babies, not your sex life: 5 examples (TikTok and blog post)
- 7 things pro-lifers wish our pro-choice friends understood about us: 4. We like sex.
- I’m not anti-sex. I’m anti-crisis pregnancy.
- “They want to protect America from premarital sex” (TikTok)
- “Why are anti-choicers so anti-sex?” (TikTok)
- PSA: I don’t care about your sex life (TikTok)
- “Why do pro-lifers hate sex?” (TikTok)
- Is the pro-life movement anti-sex?
- “Punishing women for having sex” (TikTok)
- “It’s not illegal to have sex.” (TikTok)
Pro-lifers are anti-contraception.
- Abortion restrictions and contraception use (TikTok and blog post)
- Why would I oppose hormonal birth control? (TikTok)
- Abortion Is Dying. Long Live Contraception.
- You can be pro-life and pro-contraception. Most of us are!
- 7 things pro-lifers wish our pro-choice friends understood about us: 3. We’re pro-contraception.
- Why not just advocate for contraception access? (TikTok)
- Pro-lifers aren’t trying to ban contraception (TikTok)
- “I suppose you’ll be going after contraception next” (TikTok)
You’re pro-life because you lack real world experience.
- Becoming pro-life through trauma (TikTok)
- Collection: Becoming Pro-Life
- Blog category: Your Stories
- 7 things pro-lifers wish our pro-choice friends understood about us: 5. We experience unplanned pregnancies too
- 7 things pro-lifers wish our pro-choice friends understood about us: 6. Many of us are post-abortive
Pro-life is just pro-birth.
- 7 things pro-lifers wish our pro-choice friends understood about us: 7. We care about what happens to the child after birth.
- “What have you personally done to support lower income single mothers?” (Facebook post)
- Collection: Fixed That Meme For You – Can you spot the differences?
Bumper Stickers
Don’t like abortion? Don’t get one
- The problem with “If you don’t like abortion, don’t get one”
- “Don’t like abortion? Don’t get one” (TikTok)
- “Don’t like forced gestation? Don’t force anyone to gestate.” (TikTok)
- “If abortion is legal, it is not illegal for you to refrain from getting an abortion” (TikTok)
- Abortion does not affect only the person getting one
- “Abortion only affects the person getting one” (TikTok)
- Collection: Fixed That Meme For You – Don’t like abortion?
Keep your rosaries off my ovaries
- Interview series: Ask a Pro-Life Atheist
- Collection: Fixed That Meme For You – I don’t have a rosary.
- “You’re pushing your views on everyone else” (TikTok)
- “You’re pro-life views are inherently religious” (TikTok)
- “The Bible Has No Say In What Women Can Do With Their Bodies” (TikTok)
- 7 things pro-lifers wish our pro-choice friends understood about us: 1c. We’re not all religious.
- Statistics demonstrating you don’t have to be religious to be pro-life
- Christopher Hitchens Wound Up Opposing Abortion Choice
- Why Secular People Should Care About Abortion (PDF brochure)
An acorn is not a tree
- Collection: Fixed That Meme For You – This is not a difficult concept.
- Collection: Fixed That Meme For You – Repeat after me
- Eggs, acorns, and silkworms: Refuting pro-choice propaganda
If abortion is murder, then masturbation is genocide
- “If abortion is murder, then masturbation is genocide” (TikTok)
- The pro-choice view survives on widespread ignorance of biology (en español aquí)
- Collection: Fixed That Meme For You – Basic Biology
If the fetus you save is gay, will you still fight for its rights?
- Collection: Fixed That Meme For You – If the fetus you save is gay
- “If the fetus you save is gay…” (TikTok)
God is the biggest abortionist of all.
Dialogue Strategies
Talking about abortion with pro-choice friends (YouTube playlist)
General strategies
- Could you pass an ideological Turing test? (TikTok)
- We should be able to describe the other view in a way they would say “Yes, that’s what I think.” (TikTok)
- We should be friends with people who don’t agree with us (TikTok)
- Ask clarification questions (TikTok)
- Areas of common ground in the abortion debate (TikTok 1, TikTok 2, and blog post)
Tell people you’re pro-life.
- Tell your friends you’re pro-life (TikTok)
- Representation matters. Speak up. (TikTok)
- Do your friends know you’re pro-life? (TikTok)
- “If I tell people I’m pro-life, they’re gonna get pissed.” (TikTok)