Answering The Pro-Choice Question, “Whose Body?”
Bloomington, IN — “Whose body?! My body!! Whose choice?! My choice!!” The crowd of demonstrators had marched out of their place in the Fourth of July Parade and taken a spot on the steps of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department. From there, as the rest of the parade continued, the demonstrators shouted their chant.
“Whose body?! My body!! Whose choice?! My choice!!”
Their signs displayed such phrases as, “Free Abortion On Demand!,” “Abortion Is Healthcare And A Human Right,” and “No Jail 4 Abortion.” One sign proclaimed, “I Don’t Care What The Bible Says.”
The purpose of their demonstration was apparently to voice opposition to the potential criminalization of abortion in Indiana in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned.
As they began their chant again—“Whose body?!”—one of the parade-watchers shouted out, “The baby’s body!”
And that parade-watcher…
Well…
Ok, it was me.
And here’s the thing.
In a way, the two different answers to that question really epitomize the abortion debate. Here’s how.
Whose body?
One side says abortion is a matter of the mother’s body, and the other side says abortion is a matter of the baby’s body. So, which is it?
Well, you’ll notice the question is rather incomplete. “Whose body?” Whose body what?
The abortion advocate probably means to ask something like, “Whose body is most inconvenienced by pregnancy?”
But the anti-murder advocate would say the more important question is, “Whose body is most impacted by abortion?”
It should be self-evident that the latter question is more important. And to that question, the answer is clear. While the mother’s body may be (in the minds of some) inconvenienced by pregnancy, and it is certainly impacted by abortion, there’s no comparison. The baby’s body gets completely destroyed by abortion…
…if it is indeed a baby’s body, that is.
A clump of cells?
It’s common to hear abortion advocates say the fetus is just “a clump of cells.” Implication: it’s not a living human being, so it has no value, no right to protection. It’s expendable.
One reasonable response to this is that, actually, everyone is a clump of cells. So what’s the difference in value between the clump of cells I was before I was born and the clump of cells I am right now? None. There are different cells, and more cells, but it’s the same clump. The same value.
As for the implication that the pre-born “clump of cells” is not a living human being, the scientific verdict has already come in on this issue, and it disagrees.
You were “you” at conception.
Did you know the human fetus has its own unique DNA at conception? All the genetic information about you, which you received from your mother and father, was already present at that moment. You were already completely you. If you don’t believe me, look it up. This is just the way human reproduction works.
Textbook after human biology textbook identifies conception (fertilization) as the moment when a new human life begins. So, while there are differences between a fetus and an infant, “living” and “human” are not among them.
What are the differences? The only differences between a fetus and an infant are size, level of development, environment, and degree of dependence.
Under what other circumstance would a difference in one of those attributes make it ok to kill someone?
There is no such circumstance. So, the same human rights that apply in every other circumstance apply in the circumstance of the pre-born child.
Scientists and the Bible agree.
All of this means that to be pro-choice, you have to not only not care what the Bible says, but you also have to not care what scientists say.
On the matter of whether the fetus is a living human, science has caught up with the Bible, which records the famous prayer, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb” (Psalm 139:13).
God knitted “me,” the psalmist wrote. So it was the psalmist himself in the womb, not some non-living predecessor from which the psalmist would eventually emerge. It was the psalmist, even while he was being “knitted,” before he was developed.
So, we should all be able to agree…
It is indeed a baby’s body.
In the case of an abortion, then, “whose body?” Whose body is impacted the most? Is it the body that goes on living, or the body that gets destroyed?
Everyone knows the answer.
And that’s the thing. Everyone really does know. Some people are simply lying to themselves. Why? So they can avoid personal responsibility for their sexual behavior.
It’s all about that. Abortion is the killing of an innocent for the sake of convenience—to avoid accountability, to avoid the consequences.
That’s why my blood boiled as I stood there listening to that crowd of protesters interrupt a patriotic parade with murderous chants.
How infuriating, how inexpressibly sad, that standing right over there was a group of people so passionate about being allowed to murder their children so they can have sex without consequences—so passionate that they would organize a demonstration, and probably take additional political action.
“Whose body?”
The question draws another verse to mind, which reminds me that these lost souls should be concerned about their bodies, just probably not in the way they’d think. Jesus said:
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)
I pray that at least some of those protesters will learn to fear God more than they fear taking responsibility for their actions.
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Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.