Bodily Autonomy & Other Online Arguments

What little time I spend on social media, I see the same sound bites over and over again. This is a compilation of responses.

"Fetus" just means "young one" or "offspring". A child during fetal development is no less a living human being than they will be as a toddler or teenager. These are just stages of human development. No one is less human just because we call them by a different name.

Far from "just a clump of cells" or "blob of tissue", the first cell in a child's body is highly complex. A complete human being, nothing will be added except time, nutrition, and oxygen as the new individual begins to grow within twenty -four hours, doubling in size until the young one's hundreds of organized cells implants in their mother's womb approximately five days after conception. The chemical communication from the child to the mother is quite complicated.

By 21 days the child in embryonic development has a heartbeat, by 34 days we have detectable brainwaves, and by seven weeks from conception we will move away from touch to our face. Before ten weeks, all our organs are in place and beginning to function. We are tiny with fingers and toes, faces and fingerprints, and we can even tell already if we are a boy or girl (for those who know the difference). By the time we enter fetal development, we can suck our thumb and do summersaults.

If a woman does not want to be pregnant, she has the choice not to engage in activity known to cause pregnancy. She can control her own body. She can decide that she doesn't want to be pregnant and act accordingly. While women claim they want control over their own bodies, and over their own reproductive choices, no one is stopping them - that is totally up to them to exert self-control and rational decision-making prior to engaging in activity they know can cause pregnancy.

Our public schools are not teaching this logical cause-and-effect. They are also not teaching the difference between feelings and fact. It is a biological fact we are living human beings from the moment we are conceived - when two half-cell gametes combine to form one complete cell, a new living human being is celebrated by microscopic fireworks!

Once pregnant, she is now a mother responsible for caring for her child. Just as we expect of any mother. That will always be her child. And she will always be that child's mother. The only question is what kind of mother she chooses to be.

It is illegal to force a woman to engage in activity that could cause pregnancy. Her body should not be violated. Neither should the child's body be violated. While those advocating for killing children say phrases like "bodily autonomy" it is really those of us defending the child in the womb advocating for it.

It is also not uncommon for women suffering trauma from an abortion to say they don't want men, or government, or whomever they think wants to limit what they have done in taking the life of their child in their personal business. I believe what they are really alluding to is the invasion of their body they felt when their child was taken from them. It is an unhealed wound. No one wants to be in her personal business.

And no one wants to limit a woman's healthcare. A woman should be informed of all her options, risks, and alternatives to her healthcare. When talking about abortion, they are not talking about her healthcare, they are talking about making her less healthy and killing her child but calling it healthcare. The topic is death, not health. When a mother talks to an abortionist, the only option presented to her is an abortion.

Killing a child should never be an option for a mother, doctor, father, or anyone. Her options concerning reproduction are before she becomes pregnant. What she does to become pregnant was her reproductive choice. Once she is pregnant, she has already reproduced.

It was her choice to engage in activity she knew could result in a pregnancy. No one is "forcing her to carry a pregnancy". For a mother who seems particularly surprised or angry that she became pregnant, my first question is an honest one: did she consent to having sex? That tells me if it was sexual assault or if she made a choice of her own volitional will, which we as human beings are free to do. When she says yes, she is more readily able to accept the consequences of her own choice.

For those women where it was not their choice to engage in activity that could cause pregnancy, the death industry feeds on the exploitation and abuse of women so that these women are used over and over again in a cycle of abuse that trickles down to them perpetrating violence against their own young. She is victimized and then she victimizes others.

When we take out the option of victimizing the child, it causes a stop in the cycle of violence. The one perpetrating the abuse onto a woman is then confronted with his own natural consequences such as child support and being brought to justice because a child is the proof that abuse happened. It also helps the woman who is being victimized to get out of the abuse and gives her purpose in protecting and caring for her child.

A child gives a woman who may be "looking for love in all the wrong places" someone to love, someone to live for, and a sense of connection and purpose. The child provides a catalyst that gives her focus outside herself - that matures her into love as a human being - as she enters her own developmental stage of adulthood.

A child often gives mothers new focus, purpose, and reason to be healthy and make good choices for themselves. Having a child also encourages her to reach for God. It's not a bad thing when an immoral woman becomes pregnant, as the child is often the best thing that could have ever happened to her. That child is a blessing to her. If she kills the child, she just keeps in the same activities as before and repeats the empty cycle.

Too many minors and young women feel they must regurgitate the slogans and arguments to justify what they have done in taking the lives of their children. Women often prefer to feel victimized rather than admit they victimized someone else.

Without the mercy and love of Christ, or a judge raising a gavel, it is really difficult for anyone to admit one's own guilt. It's easier to say it was someone else's fault, or the fault of circumstances such as "not being the right time" or the pregnancy not being "planned" or she "had no other choice".

NEWS FLASH: Pregnancies are not planned. The activities that could result in pregnancy may be planned.

Until we know we are guilty, we do not know we need God's mercy and grace. A woman says, "this is my body" to sacrifice her own child on the demonic altar of idolatry of self, wealth, health, or the worship of the abortion itself which is death. Jesus says, "this is my body" and allowed Himself to be broken for us so that we might live.

While abortion sacrifices someone else for one's self, love sacrifices one's self for someone else. We know this is love by the example of Christ who loved us so much that He sacrificed Himself for us - so we could be called sons and daughters of the Most High. No greater love has any man than this.

When a man chooses to engage in activity that he knows can create a child, he is choosing the possibility of becoming a father and needs to be ready and willing to support that mother and his child. He has chosen to become one with her. He has chosen to engage in activity intended to create children.

When killing children is no longer an option, a woman may think about the kind of man that may be the father of her child. Before engaging in that activity, she needs to be ready to take on the responsibility of potentially becoming a mother. If she's not ready for motherhood, she's not ready for what causes motherhood.

Once a woman is pregnant, her bodily autonomy and choices must take into account the bodily autonomy and choices of her child. Once she is pregnant, she is a mother responsible for the care of her offspring dependent on her for the only life they will ever have. And once pregnant, there is a father responsible for the family he has created.

It's never a "woman's choice" to kill an innocent human being. Murder is illegal. We just need to stop exempting the youngest and most defenseless children from the laws we expect to protect the rest of us.

Whenever you exempt a group of human beings from legal protections, you create crimes against humanity. And you don't know which next group of human beings could become exempt. The same laws protecting these children are the same laws protecting us. If any innocent human being's right to live can be denied, any innocent human being's right to live can be denied.