Big Think Bill Nye gives abortion opponents a scientific run for their money in a new video for the website Big Think. In the video, he explains why he thinks anti-abortion legislation is sexist; based on bad science; and a waste of time, money, and energy.

This video came just four days after the House of Representatives approved a bill to cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood. If the Senate passes the bill — which is unlikely, given that President Barack Obama said he would veto any bill that would defund the group — millions of women, men, and children will be without affordable, often life-saving medical care.

Here are Nye's arguments against defunding Planned Parenthood, followed by some additional context we've added for clarity:

"You have a lot of men of European descent passing these extraordinary laws based on ignorance," Nye said in the video. "We have so many more important things to be dealing with ... to squandor resources on this argument based on bad science ... is very frustrating."

One lack of understanding we can infer from the video is the presumption that life begins at conception.

As Nye says in the video:

If you're going to say that when an egg is fertilized it therefore has the same rights as an individual, then whom are you going to sue ... every woman who's had a fertilized egg pass through her? Every guy whose sperm has fertilized an egg and then it didn't become a human?

Many scientists agree that human life doesn't actually begin until about 24 weeks after fertilization, when our brains start producing wave patterns specific to humans, Scott Gilbert, a developmental biologist at Swarthmore College who wrote "Developmental Biology," told Tech Insider.

Because of this, the large majority of abortions are performed within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy — far before fetuses start showing these specific signs of life. In fact, about 90% of abortions are performed within the first trimester.

Gilbert argues, "If we are willing to call flatlining (the loss of this pattern) death, then the emergence of this pattern is when we become humanly alive."

Then Nye makes the argument that each and every fertilized egg is precious, and that each must be preserved. But the fact is that far more eggs are fertilized than go on to become people.

"Many, many, many, many more hundreds of eggs are fertilized than become humans," Nye says. "But that's not all you need, you have to attach to the uterine wall."

And Gilbert agrees:

DNA is not our soul. Most fertilized eggs do not survive to be born. The usual fate of most fertilized eggs is to die before birth. If embryos are to be considered humans, then normal human fetal demise is a far greater moral danger than abortion.

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There are also real impacts on women who are denied abortions, Nye says:

"At some point, we have to respect the facts," Nye says. "Closing abortion clinics, not giving women access to birth control, has not been an effective way to lead to healthier societies."

Scientific studies trying to parse the physical and psychological toll following an abortion have been limited, short-term, and specific to certain clinics.

But preliminary results of a nationwide, ongoing longitudinal study out of University of California at San Francisco suggest that women who want abortions but cannot receive them — whether that be due to a late-stage pregnancy, cost, or health complications — are more likely to be poor and to stay in abusive relationships. Analysis of women who were able to receive an abortion indicate that they were not likely to experience negative lingering psychological effects, such as depression.

"Despite the fact that women feel a range of emotions about their abortion experience, predominately relief, although some regret and sadness as well, almost all women, including those who have mostly negative emotions believe that abortion was the right decision for them over the long-term," Rana Barar, project director of the study, said in a blog post.

Nye argues that women, and women alone, should decide what to do with their bodies — not old, white men who are mostly out of touch with the psychological and physical trauma that could come with being forced to carry an unwanted child.

"Nobody likes abortion, but you can't tell somebody what to do," Nye says. "She has rights over this, especially if she doesn't like the guy that got her pregnant ... she doesn't want anything to do with your genes. Get over it.

Check out the entire video here: