Abortion and Bodily Autonomy

This post will include my lengthy thought out opinion the morality and legality of abortion based on my knowledge of prenatal development. I want to make it very clear that although my feelings on abortion may be different from other people in the pro-choice movement: I am pro-choice and I support Roe v. Wade. It will be impossible to include all my thoughts on this topic but I absolutely welcome any questions. 

First I will explain the timeline of early pregnancy. Then I will explain the timeline of prenatal development in the first trimester. Then I will put abortion statistics in perspective with these timelines. Then I will explain my personal views based off all of this information.

 

Early pregnancy timeline

 

Day 1 of pregnancy is the first day of their last period, also day 1 of a menstrual cycle. A period will then will last approximately 7 days. Week 1 of pregnancy is always before conception. After the period ends there is approximately 11 days of being fertile with ovulation taking place somewhere around the 14th day of the cycle. Week 2 of pregnancy is around the time of fertilization, but before one can be considered pregnant. It is important to know this is different for every one with a cycle and can vary month to month. This means that if the new laws go into effect that people who ovulate later will have less time from conception until they are considered 6 weeks pregnant to make a decision. 

 

Fertilization takes place within a few days of ovulation. After the egg is fertilized it moves down into the uterus for implantation. (Ectopic pregnancies is when the zygote implants in the Fallopian tube, where it can not grow to fruition.) Implantation takes place 6-12 days after ovulation, around cycle day 23 or 24. This is when HCG rises and you can be considered pregnant. Week 3 of pregnancy is the absolute earliest someone can truly become pregnant as that is when implantation occurs. Around 9 days after ovulation and 6 days before a missed period is the earliest time pregnancy registers on any test (blood or urine). 

 

Week 4 of pregnancy is when someone would first miss their period. For anyone who is not trying to conceive this is the earliest they would notice that they are pregnant. 

 

Early prenatal development timeline

 

About 3 days after fertilization, the embryo would be between about 6-10 cells. Between days 5 and 6 after fertilization, this becomes a blastocyst. A blastocyst is a ball of cells with two layers. The outer layer will form the placenta and the inner layer will form the eventual fetus.

 

The blastocyst then moves into the uterus and implants about 6 to 12 days after ovulation. After implantation is complete, the layers of cells differentiate into the endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm layer. The endoderm is where the digestive system and the inner layers of the lungs begin. The mesoderm is where the circulatory, skeletal, muscular systems develop as well as the epithelial layers of the lungs begin. The ectoderm layer is where the hair, skin, nails, and nervous system begin to develop. This all occurs in Week 5 of pregnancy.

 

Week 6 of pregnancy is when the neural tube closes. The brain and spinal cord develop from this tube. Other structures also begin to form, such as the heart, eyes, ears, and buds that will become arms.

 

Week 7 of pregnancy is when the brain begins to grow and face starts having noticeable depressions. The lower limb buds appear and the arm buds begin to shape.

 

Week 8 to 11 is when the external features continue to develop. This includes toes and fingers losing their webbing, the umbilical cord becomes clearly visible, red blood cells begin to be formed in the liver, and external genitalia begins to develop. Week 11 is also when the embryo becomes a fetus. 

 

Week 12 is when the face begins to develop more clearly and fingernails begin too sprout. The fetus would be about 2 1/2 inches. 

 

Abortion statistics

 

 

Thirty-four percent of abortions occur 

• Within 3 weeks of earliest possible detection
• Within 2 weeks of day 1 of a missed period
• Before the neural tube closes

Sixty-five percent of abortions occur

• Within 5 weeks of earliest possible detection
• Within 4 weeks of day 1 of a missed period
• Before fingers have begun to form

Eighty-five percent of abortions occur

• Within 9 weeks of possible detection
• Within 8 weeks of day 1 of a missed period
• Before being classified as a fetus

 

My personal feelings and opinions

 

When do I believe life begins?

To me there aren't many sudden changes in prenatal development where scientists can point to and say that that is when life begins. I consider a few points: fertilization, implantation, viability, and birth.

 

I believe this happens when new DNA is formed, which is at fertilization and before implantation. 

 

It wouldn't be implantation because biologically this changes more for the pregnant person than the embryo. 

 

It wouldn't be viability because that has more to do with medical advancements that allow doctors to be able to save a premature baby. Viability is largely considered to be at 24 weeks but there are multiple recorded cases of 22 week babies surviving. So it doesn't make sense for life to start only at viability if viability can and does change.

 

It wouldn't be birth because the idea that a 40 week stillborn baby never lived but a 22 week baby who lived only a few seconds did is just crazy. Plus considering how a third trimester fetus can be seen kicking and moving from outside, it feels really ridiculous to say that they aren't alive.

 

Is an embryo a human or a potential human?

Calling an embryo a potential human has never made sense to me because a human refers to the species of an organism. A human embryo isn't a dog embryo, or a pig embryo, or any other organism. It is always a human embryo. A separate egg and sperm could be called a potential human but a human embryo can not be.

 

Why am I pro-choice if I believe an embryo is a human life?

Because, just because life begins at fertilization doesn't mean bodily autonomy does.

 

Bodily autonomy is the right to make decisions over one's own body, life, and future without coercion. This is a fundamental right that belongs even to dead people. This is why you have to agree to organ donation by your own free will. Even when there are no risks to a procedure (such as giving blood) one cannot be forced to donate.

 

Abortion bans are built on taking bodily autonomy from the pregnant person (an autonomous body) in order to give it to the embryo (a nonautonomous body). This would force autonomous body's to risk their lives, sanity, and health for the support of a nonautonomous body. This would effectively give pregnant people less rights than corpses. If we are okay taking away pregnant people's rights to bodily autonomy for 9 months, what other laws would change? 

 

When does the right to bodily autonomy begin?

This is when it gets complicated. Bodily autonomy can't begin until the body is physically capable of living while separated from the person it is inside. This would be at viability. So what if someone at 24 weeks pregnant wants an abortion, is that okay with my morality? That leads us directly to the next question;

 

If I support the absolute right to bodily autonomy over the right to human life, when does that end?

This is when advocates for abortion bans would ask if I support the right to an abortion at full term. That is a question that many people against abortion bans won't dignify with a response because the idea that this is something that happens, is simply untrue (see the bar graph above). 

 

My belief is that the prevention of this should be based on the ability to find a doctor willing to perform the procedure. Any doctor who performs abortions are already given training in prenatal development and have taken an oath to do no harm. Therefore abortions at a timeframe when it would do more harm than good would simply be prevented by measures already in place in the medical community. In other words, this doesn't happen and if it does it can be easily prevented without the government making any laws. 

 

Conclusion

 

This is obviously such a complicated and morally intense topic in which I don't believe any analogy makes sense. There is no other situation in which the values of human life and bodily autonomy conflict so heavily. As someone who truly loves babies, I take all of this very seriously. I take the loss of all human lives very seriously. Abortions are not a fun topic, but the right to bodily autonomy matters too much to not talk about this. 

 

Lastly, I want anyone who has ever had an abortion for any reason at any gestation reading this to know that they have my complete support. You are the only one who gets to decide what happens to your body and I will always fight for every autonomous human to have this right.