Let’s Talk About That Choice
The topic of abortion can be contentious, but these important conversations can literally save lives. These reasons given to abort an unborn baby can be easily addressed if you have the right response. HLA believes the best way to convince others to reject abortion is by remaining calm, respectful, and charitable throughout. If we claim that every human being deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, then that applies to this person as well.
Here are some of the typical arguments used to get pregnant women to “choose” abortion and the logical answers to get them to reject abortion and choose life. If you have suggestions for other life saving conversations, please email them to: feedback@humanlife.org.
The pro-abortion argument.
A pro-life response.
A woman should be able to do what she wants with her own body—It’s My Body, My Choice.
A fetus is not a part of the mother’s body but a completely separate human being with her own unique DNA. If what’s in the womb is a human being, should another person have the right to kill her?
But a fetus isn’t a human—it’s just a clump of cells.
Simple tissue doesn’t have a beating heart or brain waves. Twelve weeks after fertilization, every system of a child’s body is in place and functioning.(1) Nothing new is added except oxygen, nutrition, and time.
Okay maybe it’s a human, but it’s definitely not a person.
The worldview that led to the acceptance of slavery and genocide began with stripping away personhood from some humans for convenience. Isn’t it discriminatory to say some human beings are not people?
But I consented to sex, not pregnancy!
People are only able to consent to actions, not to outcomes. The risk of pregnancy may decrease with contraception, but it’s still a possible outcome. Consent to sex acknowledges the possibility of pregnancy.
Well, nobody can use someone else’s body without consent.
An unplanned pregnancy can be difficult, but there’s no other place for this new human being to grow and survive. Is it justified to end someone’s entire existence to avoid nine months of inconvenience? There’s no neutral option in pregnancy. Killing another human should not be the answer.
But if abortion is made illegal, women will die through unsafe, illegal abortions.
Dr. Bernard Nathanson, co-founder of NARAL, admitted he exaggerated the numbers. “I confess that I knew the figures were totally false.”(2) In 1973, more women died from legal abortions (25) than illegal abortions (19).(3) Just because some people break laws doesn’t mean laws shouldn’t exist to protect the vulnerable.
I’m personally opposed, but I won’t take away someone else’s right to an abortion.
The same reasoning applied elsewhere sounds like, “I’m personally opposed to child abuse, but I won’t take away someone else’s right to beat their child.” There should be no such thing as the freedom to kill a child.
Well, the world is overpopulated anyway.
If we were to give every person on the planet a 930.25 square foot plot of land on which to live, we would need 269,597 square miles of land.(4) That’s the size of the state of Texas.(5) People suffering from hunger could be lifted out of malnourishment on less than a quarter of the wasted food from the US, UK, and Europe.(6) We can solve distribution problems without killing human beings.
Sources
(1) Sadler, Thomas W. Langman’s Medical Embryology, 14th ed., 2019.
(2) Houghton, Mark. “How the Abortion Movement Started with Deceit and Lies—Dr Nathanson.” The British Medical Journal, 2 March 2011, https://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/11/03/how-abortion-movement-started-deceit-and-lies-dr-nathanson. Accessed 21 August 2025.
(3) Koonin, Lisa M. “Abortion Surveillance-- United States, 1992.” MMWR Surveillance Summaries, Center for Disease Control, 19 September 1998, Table 17. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00041486.htm. Accessed 21 August 2025.
(4) “World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision.” United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, 21 June 2017. https://www.un.org/en/desa/world-population-prospects-2017-revision. Accessed 21 August 2025.
(5) “Texas' Natural Environment.” Texas Almanac. www.texasalmanac.com/topics/environment/environment. Accessed 21 August 2025.
(6) Skidelsky, William. “My crash course in food waste with Tristram Stuart,” The Guardian, 17 July 2009. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/jul/17/food-waste-tristram-stuart. Accessed 21 August 2025.