The right’s entire argument about “life” is complete gaslighting. Grass is alive. Bacteria are alive. Mosquitos are alive. And so forth. “Life” is nothing special in and of itself when we talk about what initiates, or does not initiate, a human being.

The arguments that have validity can only be couched in terms of humanity. Sperm, eggs, zygotes, embryos, fetuses… all are clear instances of life. Just as clearly, none of them are instances of humanity.

Why? Because there’s no functioning nervous system with a brain at these stages.

Humanity doesn’t arrive because some cell divided. It doesn’t arrive because some supporting organ begins to pulse, no matter how critical a role that organ will eventually play in a fully developed human. It also doesn’t arrive because some number of days or weeks have passed.

Humanity can only arrive when the means to think, reason, and so forth are present. Consequently, humanity arises consequent to nervous system capacity. No more, no less. Without that capacity, there can be no humanity. No brain capable of functioning means no humanity. Zero. Zip. Nada.

One (of many) takeaways from this is that in such cases where there is a non-viable pregnancy consequent to no head or no brain, humanity will never arise. It cannot arise. In such a circumstance, the only legitimate issue at hand is the mother’s health.

Is there a fuzzy line where we need to recognize humanity may have arisen? Of course. Is that line in the early stages of pregnancy? No. Absolutely not. It’s literally impossible. Where is that line? That is one of the discussions worth having.

There’s also the entirely valid discussion of what the mother wants, presuming only that the mother is mentally competent. Her health and autonomy are out there on the front line; the opinions of third parties should stop right there: opinion only. Never coercion. This type of coercion is violence against the mother’s personal autonomy, a straight-up crime against liberty. She’s not simply an incubator: She’s a person with legitimate health and life concerns.

As for convincing adults who cannot understand the topic… that’s not on the table. There’s no point in trying. That battle was lost when these individuals failed to develop critical thinking skills and/or the most basic understanding of biology.

The important thing here is for us, as that portion of the population who understand science, is to be clear on what the issues are so we can provide quality input to our political system. Something it is in dire need of.

From a post I made on Medium some time ago