Tim responds to a video that claims Christians have no right to impose their biblical views on abortion on non-Christians.
Transcript
Original video: I don’t care if you’re Christian. In fact, I will fight for you to have your religious liberty and practice your Christianity. I believe in that. I don’t believe in Christianity, which means that you do not get to dictate the way I live my life based on your religion. I don’t care what the Bible says. You have every right in the world. All those women who identify with your religion have every right in the world to not get an abortion—to not take birth control—but they do not have the right to dictate my life and what I decide to do with my body. I don’t care about your religion. I’m so tired of having nonstop conversations about what the Bible says. You live your life in the way that you interpret the Bible. Again, I don’t care. But you don’t get to take the Bible and tell me, well, the Bible says this in this chapter and this verse. I don’t care.
Tim: Four and a half million people like this TikTok video, but there is a fundamental confusion going on here. The pro-life case against abortion doesn’t appeal to the Bible; it appeals to science and philosophy. Let me show you that I am pro-life because the science of embryology teaches that from the earliest stages of development, the unborn are distinct, living, whole human beings.
You didn’t come from an embryo. You once were an embryo. And there’s no ethical difference between the embryo you once were and the adult you are today that would justify killing you back then. You see, there are only four differences between the embryo you once were and the adult you are today: size, level of development, environment, and degree of dependency.
True, unborn humans are smaller than born humans, but since when does physical size give you value? As Horton Hears a Who says, “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” In other words, human value transcends physical appearance. Sure, unborn humans are less developed than you or I, but so what? There are plenty of born humans that are less developed than you or I. Are we more valuable? Of course not.
What about environment? Where you are has no bearing on your intrinsic worth, so how does a journey of eight inches down the birth canal change your essential value? Spoiler alert. It doesn’t.
Finally, unborn humans are completely dependent on another for their survival, but so are newborns and the severely handicapped and the comatose and so on. Are they still valuable?
All four of these criteria attempt to disqualify humans as valuable members of the human community so they can be killed, but since it’s wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being, and abortion kills an innocent human being, abortion is, therefore, wrong. That’s why I’m pro-life. No Bible verses. No religion. Just science and careful thinking.