The idea for this article came from a debate with my roommate. Both my roommate and I love to argue any and every topic for which we can create an argument. One time, my roommate was telling me some facts about abortions and various pro-life/pro-choice statistics, I told him that I understood why people are pro-choice.

Turns out, that was the wrong response.

My roommate immediately started to argue how no intelligent person could ever be pro-choice. I agreed with him to close out the argument, but I still had some reservations.

I felt like I understood how a person could freely choose or feel forced into a pro-choice stance.

However, I kept thinking about it and realized my roommate was correct. I kept going through the logic gates and read about 100+ articles from both sides of the debate.

Side Note: I am aware a lot of people, who are pro-choice, are still against abortions. I am going to try and bring it in later.

First, I am going to define some terms. I will do my best to unbiasedly present these arguments as I find them represented.

What exactly is Pro-Life and Pro-Choice?

Definition: Pro-Life is being opposed to ANY and EVERY form of abortion, no exceptions.

Definition: Pro-Choice is believing that pregnant women have the right to choose to have an abortion.

Note: Basically, pro-choice people argue that a woman should have the right to choose what to do with her body, i.e. receive an abortion if they want one.

First, just by looking at these definitions, it appears both of them are almost arguing different topics. Pro-Life is arguing that abortion should be illegal. While pro-choice is arguing that a woman should choose what to do with her body.

This is the major problem with these arguments. This is why a lot of people will say they identify with both, instead of one or the other.

An important thing to realize is this: One can be pro-choice while believing abortion is bad. However, one cannot be pro-life and agree that a woman has the right to choose what to do with her body.

How can you truly agree that abortion is bad, but you still want others to have the choice for one?

If you are pro-choice, even if you personally identify as anti-abortion, you are pro-abortion because you still want the choice of abortion. You still want abortion to be allowed and practiced. That is what pro-choice (i.e. pro-abortion) means.

This is why I am pro-life. I believe that abortion is wrong in every situation. No one should have that choice to end a life. Now, before you close the tab and write me off because I said "every situation" and "no one," I know there are extreme cases and doctors who have to choose between a mother or the child sometimes. I am going to talk about this later, so please keep reading.

Let’s go to the main idea of pro-choice.

People want a choice:

People want freedom. They don’t want to be governed by anything or anyone. No one enjoys being told what they can and can’t do. They want to make that choice themselves.

Pro-choice stands above all other movements because its message is giving people what they want, a choice. If someone makes a mistake (I don't know, maybe let's say, gets pregnant) they want a choice to “correct” their mistake.

They want a choice so they don’t have to live with the consequence of their actions.

I can’t really give much more than that. People want choices because they think they should be the masters of themselves. They want to make whatever choices pop into their brain, as long as it does not harm another person.

“It is my body, and I want the right to do with it whatever I want to it.”

I think I’ve heard this argument a thousand times. My favorite is when someone says, “I don’t have the right to say what someone else should do with their body.”

If you are pro-choice, then you want everyone to have a choice, a choice to do whatever they want with their own body.

A woman is given the choice of abortion. Let's look at the choice of abortion.

How did we get here? Someone chose to have sex when they were unprepared for the possible outcome. That possible outcome is pregnancy.

Side Note: Rape is the worst thing that can ever happen to a woman. No moral person anywhere wants a woman to experience the horror of a rape. Sometimes, after a rape, the woman finds out she is pregnant. I’m not going to even try to touch the emotions that moment causes on the woman. However, let’s imagine for a second the life of the child conceived. A baby, the ultimate form of love that two people can create, is conceived and starts to form from this act of violence. The baby did not ask to be brought into this world. Yet, the child suddenly finds itself unwanted and unloved because of nothing it ever did. An act of abortion here pits the mother against her child. She sees this baby as a reminder of her affliction and takes out her anger on the innocent life growing within her. Now, this mother feels twice as victimized; first after the rape, and second after the abortion. Imagine if that same mother instead decided to keep the baby. Instead of turning her tragedy into a horrendous act, she instead turns it into one of love by keeping the baby. This act shows strength, not weakness. Keeping the child shows that you value life over your own, it is the ultimate form of love.

What people don’t understand is that there are consequences for every action. For every choice you make, you have to deal it forever. You must deal with the consequences. Sometimes, those consequences are that a human life is conceived.

In physics, Newton's third law is one of my favorite points to look to when trying to prove something. The third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

When people say they want a choice for abortion, they see this choice as a loophole out of the third law. They made an action (had sex when they weren't prepared to support a child), then they could not deal with the reaction (an unexpected pregnancy). They think that by having an abortion gets them out of the reaction free and clear.

A simple pill or a quick medical procedure and the physical process of creating a life is ended. No more consequences. No more problems.

They have no idea of the life they just ended. They don’t even think of the effect this as not only on the innocent child but on themselves as well. They think it is their body and they can do what they want.

It’s not just their body anymore. There is a small child’s innocent and helpless body becoming the victim. People feel like they are the victim of a pregnancy and selfishly try to take back their life. They don’t even think of the child’s life inside of them.

Because of this, women will often experience long-term trauma from an abortion. Researchers have shown that religious preferences do not even factor into the effects experienced after an abortion. There are long lists of physical and emotional side effects caused from abortions. This is literally how a woman’s body screams at her for her choice. Her body is letting her know that what she did was not natural or healthy.

Before I start to rant off again, it is simple: people want the freedom to choose, even if it is their life over another. To pro-choice advocates, they do not value life until a certain point in life’s development.

This is how they hide behind "science" and states that life is not valuable to them until after birth.

They use this argument to try and beat the problems that their freedom of choice brings into existence.

Since they want the choice to end a life. They simply say that until the baby is born it is not actually alive yet.

The fetus, to a pro-choice advocate, is not a human being yet, therefore it is not alive and has no right to life.

This brings up another of pro-choices fallacies.

The human embryo is not valued the same as a fully developed person.

If you believe that an embryo is not actually alive, you are probably too ignorant to understand most of what I am saying anyway, so stop reading and go throw rocks around and swing from some trees.

There are literally thousands of medical papers that can prove to you that an embryo is alive from conception until birth.

The important question then becomes at what point life becomes valuable enough to have the right to life. One of the key foundations of the pro-life vs. pro-choice debate is not when does life begin, but rather when does life have the right to life.

It is kind of a funny sentence to think about for the most part. When does a life have a right to something it is already, alive!

For the pro-choice movement, life is not “valuable” until it is almost fully developed into a baby, with most advocates stating that life is not "scared" (in the sense that it has rights) until after it is born.

For the pro-life movement, life is valuable at every stage of development, INCLUDING CONCEPTION. Many pro-life advocates do not realize this very important fact. The moment a baby is conceived. Every fertilized egg, not just embryos and zygotes, but every stage of the process is sacred and should be considered alive with rights.

Back to the issue, how can we decide when a life has rights or even better, becomes valuable?

A famous question to try and stump a pro-life person is to ask them this question.

If given the choice to save a child or a hundred embryos from a burning building, who do you save?

Of course, this is a ridiculous and difficult question even though the answer is obvious. You save the child (keep reading).

To a pro-choice advocate, this may seem like I am going against my beliefs that life is sacred at all stages of development. Hopefully, if you are pro-choice, you will see the flaws that this argument tries to make.

Why save one, when I could save a hundred? If all life is equal, then how could I choose the one versus a hundred, when they are all equal in my eyes?

Here is why this is a stupid question. The issue is not which is life/lives is “worth more”, but rather which life/lives is “morally worth more.”

The simple truth is that you can’t compare these lives to each other. They are not the same, ethically or biologically.

First, the child can feel pain. The embryos cannot. Even though I am letting a hundred viable children die, they never had to suffer. While the 5-year-old would suffer a great deal.

The five-year-old also has potentially relationships with him that would suffer a great deal more, than those of the embryos. Although the parents of the embryos would mourn the loss of the children, it is not the same as losing a five-year-old. Just as having an early miscarriage cannot compare to giving birth to a stillborn.

This argument also does not allow us to show any value to the embryos either.

We have to choose one of the other. By choosing one, we aren’t saying the other is worthless. We are simply saying that one is “worth more” than the other. Honestly, I hate even typing the word “worth” when talking about life, but I am trying to make this point.

Purposeful killing and accidental killing are not the same. You are not the one who lit the building on fire endangering the lives of the embryos and the child.

You are the one trying to save the lives.

If you were asked if you would save a hundred embryos from a burning building, then you would probably say yes. If given the choice to save a life or not, you would choose to save a life.

No one logical person would say that an embryo is worthless.

These questions answer nothing about the sanctity of life. The question only answers what you would do in a difficult situation.

There are a lot of difficult situations that occur during pregnancy. However, we should always choose to save a life instead of ending one. Every life is sacred at every point of its development.

Sometimes, we have to make a hard choice between a mother and the baby inside of her. However, until it becomes evident that we cannot use the amazing technology we have today that we cannot save both. Only then, should we consider the choice of ending a life.

Pro-choice is not giving potential mothers a way out of pregnancy. It is wanting the choice to end a potential baby who has not even felt its mothers embrace yet.

If you can't agree when the fetus has the right to life, but you agree that at some point before birth it has one, then how can you not go all the way to the beginning of its development?

Since you agree there is a grey area that at some point life is valuable.

You have to go to the source as your point for life's value starting.

Conception is when the entire process starts. Conception is when life starts. Conception is when life has value. Conception is when life has rights to continue living. Does life’s “value” change as it develops? Yes, but all life has value and should be considered sacred “has rights” at every stage.

Pro-choice is desiring a choice to end a life.

Pro-life is ALWAYS choosing to save a life.

Outlawing abortion won’t stop them from happening.

I’m probably going to sound a little silly here, but I mean it’s an easy to see argument. We’ve outlawed murder, something we all agree to be bad. Yes, murder still happens every single day. We can all agree that the world would be a better place without murder, but, as a society, all we can do to is try and make this happen is by outlawing it.

You are correct that outlawing abortion won’t stop them from happening, but it will help save countless lives. It says something about our culture as well. Outlawing abortions says that we value life at every stage.

I really can't say more than this really. Mothers who have "alley abortions" are at risk. We should, as a society, never make a mother feel pressured into an abortion, nor guilty for having one. However, we should do everything we can to help these woman with their choices and their lives as a mother.

When looking at the number of safe vs. unsafe abortions in countries that have banned abortions. Usually, pro-choice advocates will state that unsafe abortions increase after a banning, proving that banning abortions will not do any good.

The numbers do go up for unsafe abortions. However, the number of safe abortions go down much more.

Let’s look at a 1000 women. Usually, the amount of women who would have safe abortions are around 10% of that value. So a 100 women out of the 1000 have an abortion. Out of the hundred, 90% (90) have safe abortions and 10% (10) have unsafe "alley" abortions.

When looking at a country who banned abortion. The number of safe abortions decreased by 70% over a couple years. While the number of unsafe abortions would increase maybe 30-40%. Although, this is a large increase. you have to consider that this number is already extremely low.

So if 10 unsafe abortions occurred before a banning, there was only 3-4 more would have them post banning. While the 70% decrease in safe abortions would translate to 63 less abortions.

Here we see that the pro-life desire of outlawing abortions saves lives. Yes, there is lost, but saving 63 lives is amazing progress.

Adoption is a thing. If you do not believe that you cannot care for your child, then adoption is a great way for your child to be taken care of by a family who will love it and care for it.

Many people think that having a child will “end” their life. People will say it is because of economic reasons that they cannot have a child. They think they cannot take care of a child yet, but in reality, it is only because they are not willing to give up their current lifestyle to that of a parent.

Adoption is a solution for unwanted pregnancies. There are lots of pregnancy resource centers that will help any and every mother through her pregnancy. She can then give the child up for adoption and go back to her life. This is a very brave and responsible thing for any mother to do. Recognizing that she can’t care for her child the best way, but realizing that the life inside of her has its own right to a life she experiences.

My brother is adopted and I can’t even imagine a day without him as my brother. I love him and I am so blessed to be able to call him my brother. Because of adoption, I was able to have him in my life.

Is my life perfect because of it? No, he and I aren’t always on the best relationship, but he is my brother and even has children of his own. So many families cannot have children of their own. They want to share their love with children and adoption allows them to have that chance.

Low key: I may have cried a little after writing that last part.

Stages of Life:

Thankfully, due to science today, we can understand almost every stage of a child’s development. From conception to birth, we can visualize and help mothers understand exactly what is happening inside of them.

We cannot play ignorant anymore to a baby not having value until it is birth!

Here a rough calendar of a baby’s development.

Weeks 1-4: This period is before most women are aware they are pregnant. The baby is just a group of cells right now, smaller than the head of a pin. During this stage, the brain, spinal cord, heart, and gastrointestinal tract develops. This leads to the development of the circulatory system and the fetal skeleton, which initiates the organ and muscle development.

Weeks 5-13: This time period is when most abortions occur. Women become aware they are pregnant and decide to receive an abortion.

During the first couple weeks, the baby looks kind of like a tadpole. We can see the head, heart, and spinal cord developing nicely. There is a steady heartbeat we can hear at this stage. The fetal skeleton is forming.

At week 7, every vital organ the baby needs to survive has begun to develop. At week 9, babies will begin to suck their thumbs. Weeks 10-12, the baby continues to grow and most organs have started developing.

At week 13, the baby has its own unique fingerprints.

Weeks 13-21: About 7% of abortions occur during this time. At this point, the ears and eyes are in their final positions so the baby’s appearance is identifiable. The urinary and circulatory functions are beginning to function. At week 14, the baby’s facial muscles can move. This means the baby can express emotions through frowning, squinting, and grimacing. At week 16, the baby’s heart is pumping 25 quarts of blood a day.

Most critical development has been completed, the likelihood of a miscarriage decreases. The baby only needs to continue to grow and develop to be a good, healthy baby.

Weeks 21-40: Abortions during this stage of pregnancy is almost none existent, about 2% of all abortions. This is the halfway point of the pregnancy. The baby is now measured from the head to the feet. By week 30, the babies’ lungs and brain are well developed. By week 38, all organs and muscles are functioning. During the last couple weeks, premature labor is common. Mothers can expect a healthy developed baby.

Conclusion:

I don't want to be too blunt, but I really cannot see how a logical person would be pro-choice.

If you are pro-choice, it is only because you are selfish.

You are too selfish to see beyond your ignorance that abortion is killing a living being. Too selfish to desire that life is precious and should try and be saved instead of terminated. You are afraid to give up a lifestyle you currently enjoy. You are afraid to accept the consequences for your actions.

Adoption works. You can’t argue that babies being born into bad situations is a means for abortions! Every mother has the option and availability to give their child up for adoption.

If you understood and listened to some of the logic I said, hopefully, you will desire more information. You will read other articles like this one. You will fight for life.

Every fertilized egg has the potential to grow into someone like yourself. The potential gives it value which gives it a right to life.

You started off as one, every person you’ve ever known has started as one.

There are non-abortion options for a pregnancy. The answer to any pregnancy should not be abortion. Every life deserves a chance.

We may never get Roe v. Wade overturned. But if we educate enough people through the miraculous science of pregnancy or the undeniable logic of life's sanctity. Our culture can become one who values life.

This article is one crying for a change in legislature, but it is crying for a culture change. In college, I see so many young adults face the decision to receive an abortion and it kills me. Our culture is so anti-pregnancy, where only certain women of a certain age can have them. Anyone else is scrutinized and punished, when they should be celebrated.

Choosing to bear a life through pregnancy till birth is one of the bravest, if not the bravest, choice any woman can make in her lifetime. That is what our culture needs to start doing. Stop shunning unwanted pregnancies. Instead, help out the women! They are literally carrying a person in them. We need to protect them and care for them emotionally and economically so that abortions don’t have to be a “back alley” thing.

Women should desire to carry a child till term. If she cannot support that child, adoption is an option. Abortion should not be one of those option at any stage in the pregnancy.

All life is precious. All life deserves a right to live. This is why I will always be pro-life.