A species’ reproductive success relies on quantity, not quality. An unknown number of fertilized eggs are lost each month with menses. Observed miscarriages may account for 20% of all pregnancies. The first year of life is the most dangerous. Prior to vaccines, public health programs, modern sanitation and antibiotics, up to 50% of children died before the age of 5. War, famine, trauma – the causes of death prior to our biblically allotted “three-score and ten” life span are endless.
Every human being is precious, but the design of biological processes, whether by a divine creator or the universal laws of nature, results in loss of life at every turn. Humans every day add to that carnage. War, obviously kills many of us. Yet we invaded Iraq seeking phantom weapons of mass destruction. Premature and degenerative diseases fell many more. Even so, we do not ensure that every person receives all possible treatments – “the rich stay healthy, the sick stay poor”, as U2 sang. Despite seat belts, traffic laws, improved highways, and crumple zones in car front ends, over 40,000 Americans die in highway “accidents” every year. We know tobacco products are deadly, and still we allow people to buy them. Guns, poor diet choices, opioid drugs which addict and kill – we are surrounded by deaths of our own making.
The government permits its citizenry to make decisions which result in their or others’ loss of life. To single out abortion for proscription seems arbitrary at best, and misogynistic on its face. Allowing it until the time of fetal viability outside the mother (18 weeks from conception, 20 weeks from the last menses, is a good marker given our current ability to care for premature babies) would be consistent with all the other human-caused deaths we are willing to live with. And it would also be consistent with our country’s belief that individuals should be free to make decisions about their own lives with minimal state interference.
Just as the state can choose to use its resources and power to reduce unnecessary death in other arenas, so too it could do more to reduce the number of abortions without banning them. We build safer roads, regulate drug usage, ban tobacco advertising, fund medical research, pay for vaccines, and maintain strong armed forces to protect ourselves from attack. Surely we can do more to prevent pregnancies via all forms of birth control. We can build a robust support system for the care of children through school age, including free and accessible prenatal care to all who need it, and a nationwide network for safe adoption.
Doing so would require those of us who support abortion to acknowledge the loss of potential human life it entails. And those opposed would need to acknowledge that ensuring a fair start in life outside the womb is at least as important and deserving of investment as a powerful defense capacity.