Anti-abortion position:
Once God connects an egg with a sperm, a human life is created. It has a soul. Killing a fertilized egg is murder.
I don't agree with the premise that life begins at conception, but it has the advantage of being a clear line of demarcation.
People cite the 139th Psalm:
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
The idea that life begins at fertilization syncs up with the notion that DNA is the key determinant of talent and personality. Each of us were created as a unique person in the random recombination of the strands of DNA. A little from one grandmother, a little from another.
This idea that life begins at conception has been hardened by political warfare. The post-15-week abortion ban was advanced by the Mississippi legislature on the assumption that the most they could do was nudge the Roe standards. That changes with the end of Roe. There is no compromising with God. The Mississippi governor, Tate Reeves, spoke on Meet the Press.
I believe that clearly a life begins at conception, and I am trying very hard to make sure that everyone in America knows that the overturning of Roe certainly puts the decision-making on abortion policy back in the elected representatives in each of the 50 states.
He took heat on the Sunday shows. Some contraception, both Inter-uterine devices (IUDs) and "Morning After" pills, work by interrupting the implantation of a fertilized egg. Chuck Todd onMeet the Pressput the focus on what will be a point of controversy: contraception in the post-Roe world. He asked if Reeves would seek to ban contraception."That is not what we are focused on at this time," Reeves said.
Reeves kept trying to dismiss the question but Todd kept bringing it up. Reeves said he did not think an abortion ban was "going to apply to those that choose to use birth control."
Chuck Todd went back to it a third time, asking if he would sign legislation banning contraception that stopped egg implantation.
Well, I don't think that's going to happen in Mississippi. I'm sure they'll have those conversations in other states.
Todd noted that he wasn't answering the question.
Jake Tapper on Face the Nation gave Reeves the same treatment, this time on the fact that the Mississippi law makes no exception for pregnancies due to incest. Tapper asked:
So, assuming the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the state of Mississippi will force girls and women who are the victims of incest to carry those children to term. Can you explain why that is going to be your law?”
Reeves said it was because the legislature passed it that way. Tapper asked it again:
Why is it acceptable in your state to force girls who are victims of incest to carry those children to term?
Reeves didn't deny it, but said, " incest is less than 1%” of abortions in America each year."
Tapper persisted. Again, Reeves attempted to deflect, not deny.
Republicans have a problem. Anti-abortion advocates put a stake in the ground, saying human life begins at conception. That was the safe, orthodox, politically compliant thing to say. Reeves says it. Legislatures may have in mind punishing sexual carelessness or promiscuity, but hard cases emerge. Conceptions sometimes result from rape and incest. Sometimes there is a grave medical complication. Some popular and reliable forms of contraception stop implantation, not conception. And, of course, sometimes even when everyone is careful and does everything correctly, accidents happen.
When it was "just politics" there could be negotiation and compromise. But the God of Abraham says a fertilized egg has a soul. Abortion is murdering it.
If life begins at conception, then shouldn't birth certificates document that fact ... or if one wishes to parse a distinction between "life" and "birth," then shouldn't a "certificate of life" be issued? Won't miscarriages require a death certificate? And how can there be a death certificate if there is no birth certificate? Can a pregnant woman file for a Child Tax Credit upon impregnation? And shouldn't the "live" fetus of a working woman be paid a wage so as to avoid violation of child labor laws?
I have been told that according to the Jewish religion, life begins when a baby takes its first breath. According to other Christian faiths, it begins at conception. Why are we favoring one religious belief over another?