The mainstream conversation surrounding abortion fails to grasp its fundamental concept — what are the preborn?

According to many on the left, the preborn are merely clumps of cells which hold no more intrinsic value than spit or goo; according to some on the right, the preborn are humans yet hold no governmental protection to life. Both are wrong.

The preborn are as human as you or me; their intrinsic value in this world is not dictated by pseudoscience or government regulation but rather through natural law — an unalienable right to life granted by God based in the scientific process of human creation. A failure to recognize this intrinsic value leads to a failure in society.



Arguments justifying the killing of innocent human lives are based solely in the convenience and misunderstanding of one’s own preconceived notions. Until these conversations recognize the fundamental concept of abortion, they will continue to push society further from truth and closer to degradation.



Found within the famous words of Thomas Jefferson, our founders’ view on the role of government in society was simple — protection of God-given unalienable rights.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”

When right-wing correspondents such as Tomi Lahren vocalize nonsense such as, “I’m for limited government, so stay out of my guns, and you can stay out of my body as well,” or, “I’m saying this as someone who would personally choose life, but also feel it’s not the governments place to dictate… I believe the way to encourage someone to choose life is to treat her with compassion, understanding and love, not government regulation,” they fail to recognize this core purpose of government.



When our value of human life is granted to us by God, then the role of government becomes the protection of this unalienable right; the abolishment of abortion is an example of limited government. Until Lahren and other confused libertarians understand this, their argument will always be within contradiction of the moral and just role of government they claim to believe in.



On the other side of the coin, we have those who believe the value of a human life is subjective. Claiming the preborn are merely “clumps of cells” until birth, life only begins at sentience, or at first heartbeat, or at the ability to feel pain.

For millennia, scholars and scientists alike have understood the preborn to be human, and know life begins at conception. From the work of a Hippocratic scholar and physician of the cnidian school in the fifth century B.C. to the advent of cell theory introduced by Schleiden and Schwann in 1839, which recognized an embryo develops from a single-celled zygote, to more modern scientific journals which can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, and here — among others; scientific fact establishes life begins at conception.



When arguments delegitimize the humanity of the preborn, they fail to grasp the reality of what the preborn are. In his book, Precious Unborn Human Person, Greg Kouki explains the conundrum perfectly, “If the preborn are not human, then no justification for abortion is necessary. However, if the preborn are human, then no justification for abortion is adequate.” As my grandmother always said, “‘If’ is a mighty big word.” We cannot leave the determination of what the preborn are to the subjectivity of “if.”

The preborn are human beings, and no amount of inconvenience or intellectual dishonesty gives anyone the right to murder them.





The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Human Defense Initiative.