Defining Life at Conception

What’s the issue? Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a draft strategic plan for 2018-2022 that states, “HHS accomplishes its mission through programs and initiatives that cover a wide spectrum of activities, serving and protecting Americans at every stage of life, beginning at conception” (emphasis added). This language is a change from the Obama era, and is consistent with the Trump administration’s anti-abortion approach.

Why do I care? If the definition of life as beginning at conception were adopted across the government and by the courts, it could become the law of the land, thus making abortion (at any stage) illegal. I have discussed before how dangerous this would be for women, and how it would disproportionately hurt women living in poverty and women of color. What’s more, there is no scientific consensus that a fertilized egg equals a person and that life begins at conception (or when it begins at all). For example, a fertilized egg can split in half, becoming identical twins. And, of course, a fertilized egg that never implants in the uterus will never become a person. It is estimated that 50% of fertilized eggs never implant in the uterus and instead exit with the woman’s period. Even once the fertilized egg implants into the uterus, it is a collection of cells as small as the period at the end of this sentence (at this point it is called a blastocyst). Just because that mass of cells has the potential to one day grow into a human does that make it a person already? It is estimated that 10-20% of pregnancies ends in a miscarriage before 20 weeks gestation (and it is likely higher)- does that natural selection affect the definition? Should a mass the size of a period be given priority over the life and wellbeing of the woman in which it grows?

Some women may differ on their answers to these questions, but they are best left to individual women to decide, not legislative branches dominated predominately by men. Scratch slightly below the surface of the agenda of most anti-choice politicians, and it becomes clear that their policies are not about protecting the life of the fetus, as they claim, but rather about stripping autonomy and choice from women. Most anti-abortion politicians (and others who oppose abortion) do not champion measures that would increase the chance of a healthy pregnancy for both mothers and babies, including increasing Medicaid funds (which pay for nearly half of all US-pregnancies), increasing access to contraception (which reduces abortions and increases healthy birth outcomes), funding trusted reproductive health services (including Planned Parenthood), and increased paid parental leave. Instead, they believe that they (or their religion) know what is best for women and babies, even if they wouldn’t necessarily apply the same standard to themselves (one recent example of this is anti-abortion politician Tim Murphy encouraging his mistress to get an abortion, but he is far from the only example).

It is worth noting that if you feel uneasy about defining life at conception, you are not alone. The majority of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. As I explained in a previous blog, making abortion safe and accessible is a critical part of safe reproductive care for women, and saves thousands of lives a year. In addition to abortion, defining life at conception could ban emergency contraception, stem cell research, IVF treatments (since not all fertilized eggs are implanted), and any form of birth control which may prevent implementation of a fertilized egg, including IUDs and the pill (although we are not sure exactly how these methods work, they cannot rule out that they prevent implementation of a fertilized egg). Most Americans agree that instead of imperiling all of these advancements to reproductive autonomy we should trust women to know what is right for their lives and their bodies, and know that the government has no role policing them.

What you can do if you care too:

1. Comment on the draft of the HHS strategic plan and let them know that this language is unacceptable. You can email, fax, or mail in your comment using the information here or use the comment box at the bottom of this page, which contains the language.
2. Support Planned Parenthood Action, which fights to protect the rights of women (and others) to comprehensive reproductive choice and care.
3. Voice your support for contraception and/or abortion, so others know they are not alone. You can share this blog and highlight the parts of the argument that speak most to you.
4. Call your representatives. Did you know that the House just voted to ban abortion after 20-weeks? If you are against this regulation of women’s bodies and lives, call your representatives and tell them now.

 

Cover image by Prescott Pym from Flickr and shows a blastocyst at the stage of implementation.