When Does Human Life Begin? | Debunking Pro-Abortion Arguments: Episode 1

Is a preborn baby just a “clump of cells”? A “parasite”? What about that emotional IVF fire analogy that keeps going viral?

In this first episode of Debunking Pro-Abortion Arguments, I’m digging into the actual science behind when life begins - using direct quotes from biology textbooks, embryology experts, and peer-reviewed studies that completely shut down common pro-abortion talking points.

I’m also breaking down the IVF burning building scenario (you know, the one where you’re asked whether you’d save a toddler or 100 embryos) - where it came from, what it’s trying to prove, and why it falls flat.

If you want to be confident in your pro-life beliefs and ready to take on these arguments with clarity and truth - this episode is your launchpad.

🎧 LISTEN NOW on Youtube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Welcome to the first
episode of debunking pro-abortionarguments.
I'm your host, Lydia, spokespersonof students for Life of America.
And today,
I'll be answering the burning questionin the center of the abortion debate.
When does human life begin?
Having a debate or conversationwith pro-choice
others will almost always lead themto rebutting your argument

(00:24):
with, it's not a baby, it'sjust a clump of cells.
This is the focal pointof the abortion debate.
If the preborn baby is not a human person,no justification for abortion
is necessary.
However,if the preborn baby is a human person,
no justification for abortion is adequate.
But the fact is, prebornchildren are human beings from the

(00:47):
moment of conception.
And that's not meforcing my religious beliefs on you.
It's not somethingyou even need a Bible to prove.
That's just basic biology.
A study from Stephen AndrewJacobs surveyed 5502 biologists,
including pro-choice biologists,asking them when human life begins.
From a biological standpoint,the results were that

(01:10):
95% of biologists agreed
human life begins at fertilization.
And if that hasn't convinced you,a preborn child also meets
all seven characteristics of life that areuniversally agreed upon in biology.
These are as follows.
Number one is responsivenessto the environment would you preborn baby

(01:31):
has. The next is growth and change,which obviously a baby grows in the womb.
Number three is ability to reproduce.
Because yes, the genetic code that creates
a human's reproductive systemis there at the moment of conception.
The next one is having a metabolism
and the next one is maintaininghomeostasis.
The next one is being made of cellsand passing traits on to offspring.

(01:55):
And a prebornbaby meets all of these characteristics.
Biology and embryology
textbooks are all in agreementthat a human life begins at conception.
A quote from the developinghuman textbook says zygote.
This cell results from the unionof an oocyte and a sperm during
fertilization, a zygote is the beginningof a new human being.

(02:18):
another quote from Van Nostrand ScientificEncyclopedia says, at the moment,
the sperm cell of the human male meetsthe ovum of the female,
and the union results in a fertilizedzygote.
A new life has begun.
The term embryo coversthe several stages of early development,
from conception to the ninthor 10th week of life.

(02:38):
These are just some of many biologytextbooks that say, over
and over that human lifebegins at conception.
On the flip side,there are zero credible biology
textbooks to say anything close to humanlife begins at birth.
Pro-Life is pro science.
The science says that preborn childrenare living human beings,

(03:01):
and that leads into our next argument.
When pro-choice are, say, prebornbabies are clumps of cells, they aren't
technically wrong because all human beingsare clumps of cells.
But we aren't just clumps of cells.
We are unique, living human beingswith individual DNA and purpose.

(03:22):
The fact that I'm a largerclump of cells than a preborn
baby doesn't make me any more valuable.
Another argument abortion supporterslove to make is that a preborn
baby is equivalent to a parasite,which is, of course,
another very unscientific claim.
Let'slook at the definition of a parasite.
A parasite is an organism that livesand or on

(03:44):
an organism of another species to host,
and benefits by deriving nutrientsat the other's expense.
So in order to be a parasite, a prebornbaby must fit these qualifications.
Number one, they must bea different species from the host.
Number two,they must be actively harming the host.
Now let's debunk this.

(04:05):
Obviously,when two humans get together to reproduce,
they cannot reproduce any other speciesthan a human.
Sorry.
Preborn baby is of the human species.
It's not of a foreign parasite species.
It's the same speciesand therefore it cannot be a parasite.
The second qualification is thatit has to be actively harming the host.

(04:26):
But the preborn baby cannotjust be a parasite
because the preborn baby actually providesmutual benefits to the mother.
A woman's body is biologically createdto be a home for a preborn baby,
and the body reacts to the baby and triesto help it
grow, whereas a parasite,your body wants to expel it.
The baby sends cells to areasof the woman's body that needs healing,

(04:49):
and therefore
there are actually benefits to the motherin being pregnant as our bodies are.
We wanting to have childrenand wanting to reproduce.
Sorry Prebornbaby is absolutely not a parasite
and this is just another sick attemptto dehumanize Preborn children.
Just because a baby is dependenton their mother's
body does not make them a parasiteworthy of death.

(05:11):
A newborn uses their mother's bodyfor breastmilk, and we wouldn't
label newborns as parasites just becausethey're dependent on their mother's body.
There is no scientific basisbehind the idea that life begins at birth,
that preborn children are parasitesor clumps of cells.
Because every major scientific textbookand resource says
that human life begins at conception.

(05:32):
But even after making all of these points,I still have pro-choice.
Tell me you don't actually believea preborn baby is a human being,
And they try to prove itwith a ridiculous analogy that's somehow
very popular called the burning IVF clinicthought experiment.
And this analogy pro-choice asksask you to consider
that you walk into a IVF clinicthat is burning down,

(05:56):
and that you're tryingto save as many people as you can.
And in one corner there's a screamingtoddler in need of help.
But there's also, of course, a ton of babyhumans and embryonic form
that are also in there.
And they ask you to imagine that you onlyhave time to save one or the other,
either the embryos or the toddler.
And of course, many pro-lifers would saythat they would save the screaming toddler

(06:17):
and pro-choice uses to say, oh, see,you don't care at all about the embryos.
And that's of course not true at all.
Imagine the situation of the Titanicwhen the Titanic was sinking.
Who did they decide to save first?
The women and children.
Now, does that make the menwho were left behind any less valuable?
Of course not.

(06:38):
Just because we as humans decide to savesome people first based on our emotions.
Does it mean logically any human is worthmore or less than each other?
Every single human being
deserves equal rights,and just because we decide to save one or
the other doesn't mean that we don't careabout the embryos that were left behind.
If we could, we would save them too.
But that's not always possible.

(06:59):
It's much easierto want to save a screaming toddler,
because you can hear them,
and you can see them screaming for help,which is not possible
with a little human embryo.
The burning IVF thought experimentis just another ridiculous tactic
from the pro-abortion movementto try to dehumanize pre-born children,
because the reality is, all humans bornand pre-born deserve equal rights.

(07:19):
pro-choice.
There's often present arguments
that lack scientific basisand an attempt to dehumanize the pre-born.
In contrast,the pro-life movement is grounded
in the principles of basic biology.
Human lifeundeniably begins at conception.
And as such, every pre-born childis entitled to the right to life.
Thanks for watching this episodeof debunking Pro-abortion Arguments.

(07:42):
If this was helpful,
please make sure to like, subscribe,and share this episode with a friend.