Bill Nye The Science Guy Says Leave Abortion Rights To Women, Not 5,000 Year Old Book
Bill Nye has weighed in on the abortion debate, arguing that the moment of conception is problematic as a measure of when a human being should be given rights.
The problem, according to Nye, is that fertilized eggs are passed through a woman’s reproductive system on a regular basis without intervention, and so such occurrences cannot be acts against the fertilized egg.
Bill Nye Gets Real With Anti-Abortion Politicians http://t.co/NKqeyGe5I5 pic.twitter.com/8AVxXLogIZ
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) September 26, 2015
Recent controversy in the United States regarding alleged sales of fetal tissue by Planned Parenthood and the Defund Bill, now successfully vetoed as it was widely seen as a knee-jerk reaction to the doctored evidence by the organizations responsible for uploading the emotional, albeit unsubstantiated, material.
The issue of abortion is not going away in America, but what is clear is that some have made it a purely religious issue, pushing for state laws to reflect these religious views. Scientists like Bill Nye are cautioning people that facts and evidence are the best guidance we have for understanding reproductive biology, not a 5,000 year old religious book.
According to Abortion Just Facts, there is the scientific element that does not distinguish between “natural” versus “induced” abortion, and so, even anti-abortion critics are drawing the line at intent. According to this line of argument, then, every fertilized egg has the right not to be interfered with by the mother in its process.
On the other hand, science would say that if the difference is only in intention, then that becomes an issue for personal belief, as the secular right of freedom over one’s body does not dictate that every potentiality of the body must be allowed. Otherwise, cancer would be allowed to grow without intervention. Some Christians in America believe in complete non-intervention.
A developing embryo is a potential that at some point — by law the point at which it can survive outside the womb — the fetus does gain that right.
Bill Nye- “fighting against reproductive choice is defending a definition of life that’s incompatible with biology” http://t.co/gJMjPCcMPW
— Angelina L.B. (@albinwonderland) September 25, 2015
In which @BillNye fails to make a basic distinction between life that is lost and life that is taken. https://t.co/nNl5BsfN4Q#science
— John Stonestreet (@JBStonestreet) September 27, 2015
It looks like the debate over abortion in the United States will forever take place, but progress in women’s rights and the landmark 1973 Supreme Court Roe v Wade decision — giving women the “absolute right” to terminate pregnancy in the first trimester — is something that will also have to be upheld by outspoken voices such as Bill Nye.
[Images by Paul Zimmerman, Olivier Douliery / Getty Images]
