There is no issue more divisive and heated in American society than abortion. While the battle plays out in our living rooms, streets and courts, if we ever hope to resolve the struggle over abortion we must first answer one central question: When does life begin?
Contributor, The Catholic Thing
Here’s the point: It doesn’t matter what anybody—and this includes the courts—thinks or believes about when life begins, because each and every position on the question is merely somebody’s opinion. This is why the only logical answer to the question must be that life begins at conception, since, in the case of abortion, any other conclusion risks killing a human life. If it’s true that nobody knows, then the standard must be one that cannot fail to guarantee justice. You need no recourse to religious teaching to support it. Simple logic is sufficient. With due respect to Justice Blackmun, no speculation is required if one accepts the prudential assumption. You say you can’t say? Okay then, the only sensible rule has to be one that is the most biologically and legally generous—the one that protects every life whenever that life may actually begin. You don’t have to be right about the question; you do need to eliminate the possibility of being wrong.
And so I say again: Life begins at the beginning.
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