A student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville recently advocated “aborting” children up to two years old, citing their inability to communicate as justification.

The student made the argument during a December interview with Brenna Lewis, a field coordinator for Students for Life (SFL). In footage of the exchange, which Students for Life released this morning, the student compares two-year-old children to trees, asserting that both lack the ability to speak.

"The shocking video sadly represents the mainstream of the pro-choice movement."

“The fact of the matter is, without communication, we have no way if knowing if you’re sentient or not,” the young man tells Lewis. “It’s not different from this tree,” he says, gesturing to one nearby. “It’s alive, but is it sentient?”

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In response to this, Lewis suggests that “to compare [killing the tree] with a two-year-old is kind of tough.” Hearing this, the young man doubles-down.

“Can the two year old talk to me?” he asks. “Generally speaking, the child still has the inability to communicate. And until we determine that as such, at what point does sentience become an issue, we can’t really debate whether or not [abortion is permissible],” he argues.

Filmed in December, the exchange indicates a worrisome trend seen among some pro-choice supporters, says Matt Lamb, a communications officer for SFL.

"It's disturbing because the argument originally for pro-choice people was ‘my body, my choice,’” Lamb noted. “But now, they're moving to the point of even when the baby is born, even when it's not in anyone's body, abortion is okay because it's not sentient... because it can't talk…”

Lamb pointed out that under this theory, a three-month-old baby could be killed just because it can’t talk. “It’s disturbing. Every life is deserving of protection and dignity from conception to natural death,” he told Campus Reform.

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In a press release, SFL founder Kristan Hawkins argued that this type of rhetoric helps explain why students increasingly support the pro-life cause.

“The shocking video sadly represents the mainstream of the pro-choice movement,” she asserted.

“When Planned Parenthood consistently opposes even common-sense regulations, such as prohibiting Down syndrome abortions, we should not be surprised that people are increasingly joining the pro-life movement,” Hawkins added. “Young people continue to move more and more away from the pro-choice movement because of their extreme positions, justifying even infanticide.”

The video was released by Students for Life, a nonprofit organization that “exists to transform culture by helping young people make abortion unthinkable and obsolete on their campus, in their community, and in our nation.” The student is not named.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @Toni_Airaksinen