The Abortion Debate: Arguments Against Pro-Lifers (i.e. Forced Birthers)

A guide to see Pro-Lifers for who they really are and keep your bodily autonomy as a woman

1. You shouldn't have had sex if you didn't want to get pregnant. Suffer the consequences of your actions.

If that's the case, then men who smoke shouldn’t be allowed cancer treatment. They should be left to suffer the consequences of their actions as well.

And if you don't want women to get pregnant, then you should ban men from having sex unless they are absolutely planning on having a child, raising it and supporting the mother for life.

If you don't agree with any of the above, I'm not going to agree with suffering the consequences of my actions either.

2. We care about children. We care about life. We are Pro-Lifers.

Pro-Lifers often pose as godly beings with a moral high ground who care about the lives of children.

They don’t donate to feed a starving child, they don’t fight to save girls being trafficked into sex slavery. They don’t adopt from orphanages. They don’t take in immigrants who would otherwise die in wars. They won't ban guns. They won't wear masks. They won't let LGBT children exist in peace. They won't provide low-income pregnant women access to proper living conditions and healthcare facilities.

If, right now, a child needed an immediate kidney transplant, and they happened to have a perfect match, a pro-lifer would still debate over whether or not to save the child's life.

What a pro-lifer really cares about is his neighbourhood woman having the audacity to call shots on what to do with something growing inside her vagina.

The pro-lifer is in fact a Forced Birther. They don't care about life as much as much as they care about a foetus being born. Their concern extends only until it's growing inside a woman's body. Once it's out of there, they wouldn't bat an eye to its living conditions, to its human rights. They care more about a foetus's rights to be born than they care about a human's right to live.

3. An embryo or a foetus is a potential child. You're a child-killer.

An embryo or a foetus is not a child. It isn’t a potential child either. When a 11-year-old dies, we don’t say “A potential adult has died”. And similarly when an adult dies, we don’t say “A potential old-age person has died”. It is what it is. An embryo is an embryo. A foetus is a foetus. A child is a child. Nobody is killing children during abortion. They’re only killing the embryo or the foetus.

And if an embryo was in fact a child, why does the government not support it in any way, medically, financially or otherwise? Why is there no healthcare for it? Why is there no insurance for it? It's because life starts at birth. That's how we all celebrate life. As long as it's inside the womb, its just a foetus. Its meaning becomes whatever the mother chooses to give it. If the mother sees it as a foetus, it's a foetus. If she see it as her child, it's her child. If she sees it as a life-altering inconvenience, then that's what it is.

4. My religious text says abortion is wrong.

I don't care what your mythical book says about these very real political issues. Don't force your religion on me. I am my own person who gets to decide what code to live my life by.

5. You have no right over another human's life. Complete your pregnancy to term.

A woman has the right to make a decision over something that is growing inside her, depending on her. You, on the other hand, have no right over the body of an entirely independent individual (a woman). And as discussed earlier, an embryo is not a human. It's a clump of cells with no sentience (i.e. the capacity to experience feelings or sensations). This tiny thing doesn’t get to have more autonomy than a woman will ever have.

Even dead bodies in certain countries have more rights than a woman. Hospitals cannot harvest a deceased person’s organs without that person giving prior consent.

And if a person on the verge of death needed an immediate blood transfusion, nobody is obliged to give blood to them. Nobody can be forced to do something even so trivial to save a life. It is extremely absurd and cruel to force women to spend 9 months making their organs a house to a being they never want, while their bodies and minds go through painful changes.

6. Just carry the child. You can give it to a couple that really needs one.

Okay... Will you adopt the child then? If you think a child is a huge responsibility that's going to change your life, then the same applies to me.

A lot of couples don't go for adoption as a first choice. They consider it the last straw. They consider it unfortunate. So they try out fertility methods for years and ruin their body through miscarriages before giving up on children entirely than they would ever consider adoption. There are enough children in orphanages and on the streets because you forced women who didn’t want to have children to have those children. And you didn’t care about making proper living conditions for economically poor families that wanted children.

Work on providing basic living amenities to the existing kids before forcing people to bring more into this world.

Women aren't walking wombs for people who can't have children. We are individuals with rights.

7. Women are selfish

People aren't black-and-white. Forced Birthers aren't good people who would never turn to abortion.

If a Forced Birther male wants you to get an abortion, either because he does not want any more children, or he's not ready for one, or because he's having an affair with you, he's going to pull the strings, use connections and force you to get that abortion. If your parents want you to get an abortion, they will make it happen. And if they want you to have that baby, they will force you into carrying your pregnancy to term as well. Everybody has control over your body except you.

So don't be fooled by the forced birther. Those very people have the power to force you to have an abortion as well. Fight for your right to bodily autonomy. What one does with their pregnancy is their own wish. It is not murder. It is not a sin. It is an important decision, a part of life. It happens everywhere. It's a woman’s right.

Women aren't selfish. We are sick of you controlling our bodies and our lives. We are tired of leaving the decisions up to you.

You are the selfish individual who is too lazy to put in actual work to better the lives of living, breathing children.

8. My mother didn't have an abortion. I am standing here because of her decision. She gave me life and we’re living happily now.

How would your mother have felt if someone forced her to have that abortion? To do something to her body that she didn't wish to have done? Same applies to me. I'm glad you guys are happy. But I know this pregnancy will make me miserable. I don't want to go through with it. It's my body. My choice.

9. Abortion is bloody, immoral and inhuman.

All operations are bloody. Doesn't make them immoral. Every period is a bloody mess that flushes out all the eggs that haven't been fertilized, or have been fertilized but haven't attached to the uterine wall. Doesn’t mean periods are immoral. Just because there's blood involved, doesn't make it inhuman

10. If any of these arguments are made by men:

Men should have no say in abortion.

Those who do not have to face the consequences of a pregnancy, those who do not have to undergo the physical, mental, emotional, and life-altering changes that come with it, should have no say in the matter.

If men want to force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term and deliver the baby, then they should agree to a pact saying they would never have sex unless they are planning on having kids. And once the child is born, they should completely refrain from sex unless they plan on having another child. And they should comply to giving a happy, comfortable life to both the mother and the baby after birth.

It isn’t unusual for men to feel angry and frustrated when denied sex (i.e. access to another body). Imagine the anger and frustration a woman would feel when she's forced to make her own body a house to a being she never wants.

Man will get the chance to speak about abortions when the day comes where he can get pregnant. When a clump of cells attaches itself to his phallic walls and grows for nine months changing his body, mind, peace and future, and finally comes out tearing his dick hole. It is then that he can comment on abortion.

Until then, “No Uterus. No Opinion.”

11. The Truth about Abortion Ban

Banning abortions won't keep women from getting them. It only makes them unsafe and puts women at risk. Banning abortions won't stop men or other family members who force a woman to have an abortion either. Banning abortion won't make life on earth a pure existence. In fact, it will only cause over-population and increase global warming.

As much as Forced Birthers would like to argue that women who have abortions are child-killers, they wouldn't do anything to stop rapes, to raise their sons better, to get better sex education for their children, to help economically poor mothers have access to good healthcare, and their children to proper education and living conditions.

The entire idea behind pro-life movement is this--how dare this bitch have the right to do what she wishes? The whore had sex. Let her deal with the consequences of her sin.

It's the same reason a pregnant woman smoking or drinking is seen a vile witch, but children or pregnant women who are subject to second hand smoking when men puff their cigarettes on the street are left to deal with it on their own.

Don't forget that only you have the right to do what you want with your body. When an embryo attaches onto your reproductive walls with an expected growth period of nine months, within which you have no idea what's going to happen to your life, to your body, to your health, to your emotions, to your mental state, and to your future—when you are in that position, you decide. Decide to carry that pregnancy. Decide to abort it. Until you are in that situation, keep your opinion to yourself.

Instead go take care of the millions of children who actually need your help. Donate to them. Feed them. And adopt those children whose parents had to abandon them because you forced the woman to give birth to a baby she never wanted.

If you're unwilling to actually work to save a life and instead sit on your false moral high horse going around telling pregnant women what to do with their bodies and their lives, you're not a pro-lifer. You're just a Forced Birther desperate to control women's bodies and lives.