Abortion Debate Index

All links below are to Secular Pro-Life content unless otherwise specified. If you don’t find what you’re looking for here, you can also search our blog which contains thousands of articles from non-religious pro-life perspectives.

If you find this content useful, please donate to support our work.

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.
• (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)

What do we mean by “alive”? Are viruses alive?

• Are viruses “alive?”

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.
• “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?

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

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.
• 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)

Personhood

You aren’t a person until…

…you’re viable/can live independently/don’t require someone else’s body to live.

• Viability = personhood?
• (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
  • “Why aren’t I invited to funerals for miscarriages?” (TikTok)
• 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.
• (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)

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)
• “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.

• “Fewer rights than a corpse!” rebutted

The “Hard” Cases

What about when her life is in danger?

• I’m an emergency physician. Pro-life laws don’t threaten my patients.
• (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

Abortion is 14 times safer than childbirth.

• (Equal Rights Institute) Is Abortion 14 Times Safer Than Childbirth?
• Keisha Atkins wrongful death lawsuit (TikTok)

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
• “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.

• Research: Abortion Views and Gender
• “No uterus, no opinion”
• 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.

• 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 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)

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.

• “Half of fertilized eggs fail to implant” (TikTok)