On June, 24th 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, and subsequently, the majority of the country proceeded to lose their damn mind.
First, you have people on the right rejoicing the decision. Many people on the right believe abortions should be banned completely because human life begins at conception and presented the decision as the savior of lives after 63 million children were brutally slaughtered under the dictatorship of the Roe vs. Wade ruling.
Then you have those on the left, who strongly disagree with the decision and believe human life begins well after newborns plop out of the womb unless, of course, it's called an abortion. Their majority supports abortions at all stages of pregnancy because it’s a woman's birthright to choose who lives or dies and claim these rights have been stripped away by the ruling, allowing the government up the vaginas of America with a flashlight, ultimately killing democracy.
Both arguments are as ridiculous as they sound.
Ridiculously Right
Human life as we understand it does not begin at conception, rather the potential for human life begins at conception and many would argue at this point, that it’s barely potential at all, rather just a probability¹ of approximately 27%. Would you jump out of a plane with a parachute that opens 27% of the time?
Enduring a pregnancy is a considerable health challenge for any woman. In contrast, women with preexisting health issues can face serious complications and there is no place or right for anyone, other than that pregnant woman, to make the decision to take that health risk.
Shortly after conception, a fetus is a clump of cells indistinguishable as a human, and even with a detectible heartbeat, this organism has only the potential to be a human life. It is not yet viable. It cannot live on its own without the life-support system provided by the pregnant woman.
That life-support system extracts energy, nutrients, and other vital health needs from the pregnant woman causing significant difficulty in just about every aspect of life because the woman relies on the same diminishing life-support system for her own survival.
Prior to viability, the organism draining this life-support system is less human and more synonymous with a parasite.
Here’s the CDC’s definition² of a parasite:
A parasite is an organism that lives on or in a host and gets its food from or at the expense of its host.
Sounds remarkably like a fetus, does it not?
The image above (left) shows a human parasite at 5 weeks. One can’t help but notice how much a 5-week old human embryo more resembles a Xenomorph (above right), which is a fictional parasite from outer space Sigourney Weaver spent a good portion of her career fighting.
Notably, It’s not even called a fetus, it’s an embryo and prior to the 3rd week of development, it’s called a zygote with a portion of the cells unintended for human life, rather designated for the placenta and other fetus casing parts.
Abortion prior to viability is not killing a human life because it cannot survive as a human at this point. In fact, one common method of abortion when a fetus is 16 weeks or more in gestation is inducing labor. The fetus either fails to survive the delivery or dies shortly thereafter and there is nothing that can be done to save its life.
That is not killing anything, it is terminating the pregnancy, and the fetus dies on its own naturally.
Ridiculously Left
The left proclaims support of “reproductive rights” while contradictorily supporting abortion which explicitly strips the rights of implicit human reproduction.
Most of these supporters are adamant that a pregnant woman reserves the right to an abortion at any point during pregnancy and where legally viable, several clinics exist that specialize in terminating pregnancies at, or beyond, 36 weeks.
When did “terminating a pregnancy” get misunderstood as “executing the unborn child prior to terminating a pregnancy”?
In circumstances where had the child been delivered, the child would have survived, the mother is not choosing to merely “terminate a pregnancy” she is choosing to “end a human life” in addition to “terminating a pregnancy”.
The baby has to come out of the womb regardless, why kill it before it’s removed?
Given the excruciatingly long wait times for adopting newborns in the United States due to the lack of supply, there’s little concern as to what to do with it if the child is unwanted, so this makes zero sense.
The left has been floating around a preemptive response to this question stating that:
Banning abortion would boost maternal mortality by double-digits
The statistics of pregnancy-associated maternal mortality rates being 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births and 0.6 deaths per 100,000 is used to support to these claims. This suggests that killing the child prior to its delivery saves copious numbers of lives.
Not only are these numbers fairly accurate, but they also sound incredibly impressive. That is … until you do the math and realize they equate to an approximate 0% chance of death (0.02%). Abortions make up 19% of all pregnancies, thus, the probable outcome would be a 19% increase in the death percentage which would be 28.3 people per 100,000, or approximately 4 people, which is roughly 0%.
While this is indeed a 19% (or 21% as one study claims) increase, overall this equates to 0% and the potential of saving 4 lives instead of 100,000 lives is not the strongest argument.
What this study also doesn’t mention is that killing the fetus by lethal injection also poses serious risks to the mother. This is sometimes done by a separate doctor and then the mother must deliver the baby (now dead) with her regular physician. If this is not done in time, this poses a life-threatening consequence to the mother.
The United States Supreme Court
Ironically, the Supreme Court agrees with the left, that the Supreme Court has no business in the bedroom or the uterus and should have no control over women. The ruling explicitly states that the Supreme Court cannot rule on abortion and while unpopular, this appears to be an accurate decision.
As such, they have dissolved Roe which had created a framework similar to what would be expected of federal regulation, and this is not what the Supreme Court is empowered to do. The Court exists to interpret the Constitution of the United States as applicable to cases presented to the body. They do not make laws. That is the job of Congress and the Executive branch.
Overturning Roe removes no rights from anyone. If there is a single woman who has been restricted from having an abortion in the United States, please step forward. Otherwise, it appears that any woman who wishes to have an abortion may continue to do so in any jurisdiction whose laws support abortion at the gestation period of her pregnancy.
The silver lining that those on the left (and the right) seem to be oblivious to is that this decision also paves the way for Congress to “codify Roe” and construct a proper regulatory framework for pregnancy termination in the country and sign it into law.
This was a promise made by the Biden administration during his campaign and if SCOTUS says it cannot rule on abortion, then it cannot rule on abortion either way.
50 Years of Inaction
The campaign promise to “Codify Row vs Wade” has echoed town halls for decades, yet despite being elected into office, politicians promoting this intention have failed to accomplish this despite having nearly 50 years to do so, in many cases, they fail even to try.
That’s over 26 million minutes, 26,022,180 to be exact. In a country where there are 1.2 abortions per minute, you’d think a bit more effort would be considered.
Under the Biden administration, this was attempted³ in 2021/2022, but they failed because they didn’t just try to codify Roe vs Wade, they introduced legislation that would have negated over 500 state laws which failed to even obtain enough votes from their own party, much less any significant support from Republicans.
That’s not trying. That’s intentionally making it look like you tried knowing damn well it wasn’t going to work. There’s a word for that, it is called disingenuous.
Let’s be honest here, it is unlikely any sitting Republican wanted this ruling to take place so close to mid-terms and it is unlikely any sitting Democrat didn’t privately rejoice when it did. It helps the latter and presents a challenge to the former which is evidenced by the many articles here on Medium regarding the topic and abroad.
Why are We Even Arguing?
Here’s the real kicker. 74% of all abortions happen between 6 and 8 weeks. 93% of all abortions happen prior to 10 weeks⁴. Even most Republicans are tolerant of this legality. Furthermore, 99% of all abortions occur prior to 21 weeks⁵.
What are we even arguing about?
Apparently, we are arguing over the 1% of “what ifs” and “rarely happens” with equally as ridiculous justifications on each side.
The left spouts off insanities like the “Supreme Court is killing democracy and stripping our rights” and “Republicans are forcing Christianity” while the right spits insanities like “Democrats support doctors killing newborns” or “the right to choose is the right to kill”.
Yet the only solution anyone offers is a radical proposal of overreach rooted in the extreme side of the issue to which they agree accompanied by a total disregard for the beliefs and opinions of their opposition.
All of this over situations that almost never happen. This is not an issue, this is an example of ignorance, a display of selfishness, and a political tool that has been exploited by politicians for half a century to deflect their own deficiencies.
The Solution
There is a daily multitude of articles and news reports complaining about the opposing side of whichever position the author supports followed by a subsequent explanation about how vile and horrible their opponents are.
This is typically followed by … nothing; no solution, no ideas, and no consideration of any points of validity in contrast to their own opinions, rather the “I’m right” and everyone who opposes me is a misogynist or a murderer approach is taken and this solves absolutely nothing other than getting a handful of approvals deriving from like-minded selfish stubbornness.
Rather than adding to that worthless pile, here’s one idea.
- Pro-life supporters need to yield to the fact that an embryo and a fetus of approximately 20 weeks or less gestation is essentially a parasite and cannot survive as a human.
- Pro-choice supporters need to acknowledge that a fetus at approximately 21 weeks gestation is a human. Its chances of surviving arguably begin at roughly 21 weeks, as is evidenced by human survivors, and get stronger each and every day thereafter. The current record gestation period for a human has survived 21 weeks and 1 day (the beginning of the 21st week)⁶, which occurred in November of 2021 in Alabama.
- Change the legal definition of abortion to the medical definition of abortion, which is the termination of a pregnancy. The current federal definition is “the termination of pregnancy by various means, including medical surgery, before the fetus is able to sustain independent life.”
- Allow abortions at all stages of the gestation period, however, prohibit killing the unborn child during the process with obvious exemptions for accidents, medical necessities, or expected natural expiration where it's senseless to attempt life-support (for example at 19 weeks).
- Obligate Doctors to choose the abortion method that is both a), in the best interest of the mother's health, and b), that allows the fetus the highest probability of survival post-abortion.
In regards to the latter two, the child must come out of the womb one way or another, period. It’s not going to dissolve on its own, it must be removed. Insisting on a right to kill the child prior to delivery is as idiotic as the position insisting a clump of cells is a human and as previously established, there is no legitimate medical reason for this that equates to greater than an approximate 0%.
Notably, there is less than a 1% chance of any situation arising which would necessitate such implementation of policy, but unfortunately, that is how ridiculous the pro-life/pro-choice argument has become.
There is no doubt, that many people will not like this idea, but at least it’s an idea and one that considers both sides of the issue in an attempt to find a solution everyone can live with. That in particular is a large part of the problem in that neither side cares about the position of the other.
There is nothing wrong with the belief that life begins before birth and there is nothing wrong with believing a woman should have the right to choose whether or not to host a parasite. Yet, instead of being respectful to an opposing opinion, according to the two major cults, one side is a “religious control freak” and the other side is an “unethical murderer” and it’s just stupid.
Under the above or comparable plan, no fetus is murdered and no woman is forced to endure a pregnancy. It’s not rocket science.
However, to accomplish this, each side needs to budge just a little and stop being so damn selfish, but more importantly, stop using unborn children to further a political agenda.
America, Land of the Hypocrite
Only in America can one person choose to kill an unborn child and it’s perfectly legal, but another person who causes the death of an unborn child can be sent to prison for murder under federal law⁷, and additionally, many state laws.
New York allows abortion at all gestation stages⁸, and if a fetus survives an abortion, it can be terminated by a practitioner with the protections of “new life” having been repealed⁹. Obviously, this almost never happens, but the point is, it’s legal.
California, which allows abortions up to 24 weeks, considers killing a fetus murder which is defined¹⁰ as the “unlawful killing of a human being or a fetus with malice aforethought”. Not too long ago Scott Peterson was convicted of 1st-degree murder for killing his pregnant wife Laci Peterson, and 2nd-degree murder for killing his unborn child. Perhaps he should have claimed he was performing an abortion and gotten at least one of those charges thrown out.
What else would anyone expect from a county whose two major political establishments support policies that contradict themselves?
- Republicans care so much about a fetus surviving to live a life they have no problem with forcing a woman to support a parasite, yet, support weak gun control laws that allow guns in school to kill the very children they wanted in the world.
- Democrats care so little about a fetus that they have no problem killing them through abortions, yet, they want stronger gun control laws because the abortion survivors they didn’t care about before, might get hurt.
You just can’t make this stuff up and all over less than 1% of abortions which has a very simple fix.
It’s moronic.
Final Ridiculousness
The majority of Republicans do not appear to have an issue aborting a clump of cells nor do the majority of Democrats appear to support killing full-term viable infants and the majority of the population supports some variation of abortion.
According to Pew Research¹¹, of those interviewed in a recent study, 61% agreed abortion should be legal with some exceptions ( 36% agree with no exception) in addition to another 27% who agree abortion should be allowed in some cases (albeit illegal in most cases) which equates to 88% of the country supporting some form of abortion legality.
Yet, determining what to do in regards to situations that rarely happen sends both sides into a frothing frenzy who subsequently insist on offering binary extremes with zero chance of unified adoption premised with ridiculous arguments that lack common sense.
The entire issue can be resolved if everyone would just respect the opinions and beliefs of their opposition long enough to have an adult civilized conversation with an intent to solidify a solution.
Instead, what we have today are two cults on opposing sides of an issue insisting the other side is completely wrong and the epitome of all that is evil.
If this display of selfish ignorance isn’t astonishing enough, the current brilliance to gain support for either side of the issue is a meticulously architected strategy of what ultimately amounts to name calling.
Great job America! To say this is ridiculous is an insult to ridiculous things.
At the end of the day, there is a solution to all of this that everyone could live with, perhaps not the one contained in this article, but a solution does exist.
However, it must be sought, and currently, nobody is looking because everyone is too busy whining about the issue and how horrible other people are for having an opinion that differs from their own, to bother doing anything that could actually help find it.
References
- Library of Medicine: Conception to 6-week gestation probability
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Definition of Parasite
- Woman’s Health Protection Act of 2021
- CDC Abortion Surveillance
- CDC Abortion Statistics
- Record Birth at 21 Weeks
- Unborn Victim of Violence Act, 18 USC §1841
- N.Y. Article 12-A of the reproductive health act
- N.Y. Section 4164 of the public health law REPEALED
- California Murder Definition
- Pew Research on Abortion Views
- 1st image credit: AL.com
- 2nd image credit: FamilyEduction.com and GraflexSaber of therfp.com
- 3rd image credit: SupremeCourt.gov