Defending the Separation of Church and State

Let me be clear from the start here: the only objection to women having an abortion is religious. Full Stop. Because there are no medical, or legal definitions of when a fertilized egg becomes a human being, commonly referred to as when human life begins, evangelical Christian arguments against abortions are a mix of pseudo-science and misinformation.

Every claim forcing women to give birth is – human life begins with a woman’s fertilized egg. OK, no problem there. How could it be otherwise? Every living thing has a starting point. However, evangelical Christianity equates a fertilized egg, known as a zygote, with a fully formed person with all the constitutional rights and privileges of a post-birth human being living outside the womb.

High school reproductive biology 101 tells us a zygote is a single-celled organism resulting from a fertilized egg. The zygote divides multiple times and becomes a blastocyst, a ball of cells that most often, but not always, implants on the uterine wall. Once implanted, the blastocyst develops into an embryo. After 11 weeks of pregnancy, the embryo is referred to as a fetus.

Anti-choice zealots love to use the term fetus when referring to what is developing inside a pregnant woman, regardless of the gestational period. They use this term for shock value because images of late-term fetuses, commonly found on the internet and anti-abortion protest signs, look more like a living person. What gets aborted in the first trimester when most procedures are performed are zygotes, blastocysts, or embryos, that bear no resemblance to a living person. Remember, anti-choice zealots need to keep their base outraged to get draconian anti-abortion bills passed. Without any resemblance to a person, there would be no emotional connection, no outrage. With no outrage, the Christian movement to deny women the constitutional right to have an abortion would die a natural death.

A common argument to keep the base agitated is since the U.S. Constitution protects life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we have an obligation to protect the lives of every citizen, born and unborn. The outright lies in these claims are obvious to some but not to true believers. The phrase “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is in the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution. We are governed by the Constitution, not the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution protects everyone living in the United States, not just citizens, and fertilized eggs are not recognized as citizens. If they were, zygotes would have to be counted in the census. Yet this “big lie” is repeated ad nauseum.

Another “big lie” created to encourage women to give birth is mothers will get all the support they need from religious organizations or faith-based adoption agencies that will place their child with a loving family. That sounds great, but the reality is once the mother and child leave the hospital, they are largely on their own and, thanks to the Supreme Court ruling in Fulton vs Philadelphia (2021), faith-based adoption agencies can discriminate against LGBT couples because the agency “holds the religious belief that marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman.” https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf. So much for placing children in loving homes.

Amazingly, the U.S. House had to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act because some politicians want to deny women access to complete healthcare. Unfortunately, the bill is stuck in the Senate because some senators believe the bill will force religious healthcare professionals who object to performing abortions. I read the complete text of H.R.3755 – Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021 https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3755/text and there is nothing in the bill that forces anyone to perform an abortion

As of this writing, the Supreme Court is likely to let states deny women some constitutional reproductive rights. Fortunately, the court’s current standard lets states allow abortions after fetal viability if the mother’s life and health (both physical and mental) are in danger. Under this legal standard, both fetal viability and the patient’s health, are at the discretion of the patient’s physician. Additionally, states may not require additional physicians to confirm an attending physician’s judgment that the patient’s life or health is at risk. https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/state-policies-later-abortions.

One way physicians could help protect women’s healthcare rights from the anti-abortion laws being regurgitated in state after state is to perform abortions on women whose life and health (both physical and mental) are in danger, even though the pregnancy is past the state-imposed limit for abortions.

Ray Vensel is president of the Maine Chapter of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. He welcomes comments at president.rv@ffrfmaine.org and 207-370-8813.