Important Questions
Is pregnancy work?
Yes, pregnancy is work. Pregnancy has monetary value, as documented in surrogacy payments. Furthermore, the work of pregnancy can be measured metabolically. On average, the energy required for pregnancy is 357,000 Joules, 1,200,000 Joules, and 1,950,000 Joules per day in the first, second, and third trimesters respectively, according to N.F. Butte and J.C. King in "Energy requirements during pregnancy and lactation" (Public Health Nutr. 2005 Oct. 8(7A):1010-1027). Altogether, pregnancy requires 317,250,000 Joules. For perspective, this means pregnancy is more work than running 700 miles.
How long is pregnancy?
Pregnancy is typically measured as 40 weeks of gestation, starting from the first day of a person's last menstrual period (LMP). Fertilization and implantation occur around the 2nd week, which means that the actual duration from implantation to delivery is about 38 weeks. Healing after pregnancy takes an average of 6 to 8 weeks, so pregnancy significantly affects a person’s health for a minimum of 44 weeks (approximately 11 months). If breastfeeding is included in this calculation (given that new mothers are encouraged to breastfeed for at least one year), this period extends to a minimum of 90 weeks, or about 22 months.
Between 0 and 22 weeks gestation, how does someone decide to keep or abort a pregnancy?
They ask themselves the following questions: Is my health strong enough for pregnancy and birth? Do I want to have a child? Am I financially able to support a child? Am I emotionally able to support a child with love and patience? Am I willing and able to coordinate 24/7 childcare? And, if the fetal body shows evidence of abnormality, is it kind and responsible to allow a baby to come to exist in that body?
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If the answer is "yes" to all those questions, then deciding to keep the pregnancy is reasonable. If any of those questions are answered with "no," then deciding to abort the pregnancy is reasonable. If the decision is to abort, then as explained in the guidelines, the earlier the better.
Is pregnancy dangerous for women?
Yes, pregnancy can pose significant risks. While many women survive pregnancy, it's not without danger. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pregnancy complications are the 6th leading cause of death for women in the United States between the ages of 15 and 34. For reference, see pages 13 and 14 of the CDC's 2017 mortality rate report. For further reading, see "The Disturbing, Shameful History of Childbirth Deaths," a Slate article by Laura Helmuth and "The Scary Truth About Childbirth," a Mother Jones article by Kiera Butler.
Which is more dangerous for a pregnant person, abortion or continuing the pregnancy?
Statistically, continuing a pregnancy is more dangerous than aborting a pregnancy. According to a Guttmacher Institute data set, there were 5,575,150 pregnancies in the United States in 2017.
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3,855,500 ended in birth.
862,320 ended in abortion.
857,330 ended in miscarriage.
1,208 women died from pregnancy complications (CDC).
2 women died from abortion complications (CDC).
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Based on these statistics, the number of deaths due to pregnancy complications was more than 60,000% greater than the number of deaths due to abortion complications.
For every 100,000 pregnancies, there were 21.67 pregnancy-related deaths.
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For every 100,000 pregnancies, there were 0.036 abortion-related deaths.
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For every 100,000 abortions, there were 0.232 abortion-related deaths.​
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The data is clear that continuing a pregnancy is many times more dangerous than abortion.
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(Note: Unsafe, illegal abortion is statistically more dangerous than safe, legal abortion provided by a licensed medical professional.)
New Birth control for men?
Aside from vasectomies, which run the risk of being irreversible, and aside from condoms, men currently have no other highly reliable form of sperm control. Men deserve more options to be able to have consensual, recreational sex without fear of unwanted fatherhood. The good news is that new hormone-free, reliable, and efficient options for sperm control are in the works! If new sperm control options are approved by the FDA, and if men choose to use them, then the number of abortions from unwanted pregnancies can drop drastically. For more information, visit: https://www.malecontraceptive.org/
If a human body exists that does not contain and has never contained a person, then who owns that body?
In general, living human cells belong to the person sustaining them, which means before 23 weeks of gestation, a fetal body in a uterus belongs to the owner of the uterus. A natural follow-up question is "Does the biological father own half of that fetal body because he provided half of its DNA?" The answer is no. Having a biological connection to human cellular life does not confer ownership over that life. For instance, the source of the sperm that contributed to your existence does not own half of you, nor does the source of the egg. You are the sole owner of yourself, and human cellular lives belong to the person sustaining them. While there are legal cases that address ownership of embryos created through in vitro fertilization, these cases specifically pertain to frozen embryos stored in a laboratory, not to those developing within a person's body.
Is feminism good or bad?
Misandry and feminism are not synonyms, contrary to what misogynists will tell you. Click on the underlined words to learn their definitions.
What about religious beliefs that contradict science?
Through the right to liberty, every person deserves control over their own body, which includes their brain—the seat of their mind and beliefs. Therefore, every person deserves control over their own religious beliefs, and no person deserves to have any set of religious beliefs forced upon them. Science and religion are not mutually exclusive paradigms. All scientific, religious, and scientific-religious people and institutions ought to respect people, which requires polite, heartfelt conversations to settle disputes and absolutely no tolerance for discrimination against other people on account of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.