The Freedom to Kill

By Ariana Kendricks | VOX Staff

Graphic Illustration by Ariana Kendricks | VOX Staff

Women may have had the legal right to end their pregnancies since 1973 because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade, but today, state laws can limit access to abortions. For example, minors in Georgia need parental consent for an abortion.

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), as introduced in the U.S. Congress in 2007, states that it was created “to protect... a woman’s freedom to choose to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy.”

Like many other teens, I was once unaware that bills like this even existed. I believe all teens should know about FOCA because it could seriously impact parental involvement in abortions and laws that set practical limitations on abortion, tax dollars going to fund abortions and countless lives.

I am pro-life, and I’m in favor of giving unborn babies the chance to live because I believe it’s their God-given, human right. FOCA will only make access to abortions easier. Therefore, I believe that teens should fight this bill and others like it.

A Recurring Danger

Lawmakers have repeatedly considered the Freedom of Choice Act, in various forms, since 1989. It is not currently under consideration, however, Osayi Osar-Empokae with the anti-abortion group Americans United for Life, wrote “One of [FOCA’s] chief proponents, Rep. Jerrold Nadler [D-N.Y.], has promised that it will be introduced ‘sooner rather than later,’ and President Obama has promised his administration’s support for this radical legislation.”

On the campaign trail last year, President Barack Obama made a promise to Planned Parenthood, “The first thing I’d do, as president, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act” if it were passed in Congress.

Yet at the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency, which aired on CNN last August, then-Senator Obama also said, “The goal right now should be… how do we reduce the number of abortions?” We can't reduce them by implementing bills like FOCA.

Section 4 of the latest Freedom of Choice Act would ban the government from denying or interfering with a woman's right to bear a child or abort a child before the child can live independently outside the womb. A woman could also abort a child who can live outside the womb when termination is necessary to protect the woman’s life or health. (Notably, the bill uses the word child instead of fetus when many abortion-rights activists argue that an unborn baby is just a fetus, not a child.)
But in the November 2007 CNN/YouTube Republican presidential debate, Republican Congressman Ron Paul said: “I'm an O.B. doctor, and I practiced medicine for 30 years. And I, of course, never saw one time when a medically necessary abortion had to be done.”

If these abortions aren't necessary to save a woman's life or health, why do they happen? Simply because a baby could become burdensome? Senior citizens, little kids and people with disabilities often have to depend on others for everyday things. Taking care of them could become emotionally, financially and physically exhausting. Should we kill them, too?
I think the Freedom of Choice Act is more like the Freedom to Kill Act because it would nullify all present laws that limit abortion and make abortions available to all women on demand. State laws that require parental consent for a minor to have an abortion would be abolished. FOCA would also make one of the most gruesome abortion methods – partial birth abortion – legal again, according to the anti-abortion group National Right to Life. (The late-term practice involved partially delivering the baby and “puncturing of the back of the child’s skull and removing the baby’s brains” before delivering the rest of it, according to the law federally banning the practice in 2003.)

Life or a Blob?

I understand that the effects of FOCA may not concern those of you who do not believe that an unborn baby has a right to live. But I believe life begins at conception — the moment a male sperm and a female egg unite. What results from this unity is a one-celled being called a zygote (which later develops into an embryo, then fetus). A zygote is objectively, biologically alive. It has the four essential criteria to establish biological life: metabolism, growth, reaction to stimuli and reproduction (cell reproduction). The zygote also has an unique genetic code, different from its mother or father, which decides his or her individual characteristics – gender, eye, hair and skin color, bone structure, etc. These traits will remain with this individual the rest of his or her life.

Some abortion rights activists still argue that an unborn baby isn’t a real baby in the embryonic (weeks 3-8) or fetal (weeks 9-40) stages of development. But Medline Plus Encyclopedia says that by week three, the embryo’s brain, spinal cord and heart begin to develop. Between weeks four and six, buds for arms, legs, hands, feet, toes and fingers start to develop and the heart begins to beat at a regular rhythm. By week seven and eight, all the essential organs have begun to form and facial features continue to develop. From there on, the growth rate is amazingly rapid. The fetus can make a fist with its fingers at only 9 to 12 weeks old. The baby can move at 13 to 16 weeks, and the baby can hear at only 17 to 19 weeks old. At no other time in your life will your body undergo as much change.

You didn’t come from a zygote; you were a zygote. You didn’t come from an embryo, you were an embryo. You didn’t come from a fetus, you were a fetus. They, like we, deserve to the right to live.

Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) was not writing against abortion in his whimsical children’s book, “Horton Hears a Who.” But the story makes a strong statement about valuing all types of life. We cheer on Horton for seeing the Whos’ worth, even when no one else did. But many of us don’t see the value in a real human life if it’s not fully formed or if it’s still in a mother’s womb. I think the world should take a lesson from Horton’s simplistically beautiful and wise words, "A person is a person, no matter how small."

Ariana attends Atlanta Technical College. She plans to spend her summer vacation in Florida.