Women must have the right to control the functions of their own bodies. Rev. George Gardiner, pastor of the college Hill United Methodist Church says, "Young women need the freedom to make choices for their reproductive life when their family can't guarantee them parental support." Women should not be forced to have babies they don't want. They must be able to decide what happens to them and have a safe and legal way of doing so. Women are in control of their own bodies and lives and legislators have no right to interfere. This concept of the right of a woman to her body was one of the very first defenses that was used to defend the righteousness of abortions for women, but many more have been articulated and adopted by contemporary pro-choice society since.
However, abortion is considered murder by half of all Americans. Pro-lifers believe that human life begins at the moment of conception. When the merge of the egg and sperm are complete, they are fertilized and known as the "zygote". The zygote contains a full set of 46 chromosomes which are required to create a human life. Scientists identify that at the moment of fertilization the ovum takes on an entirely different destiny, life. About 15,000 genes from the sperm and ovum form a unique combination. This is nothing less than a new human at its earlier stage of life. In the United States many infants will not make it to puberty, old age or even their second birthday. Just because of their shortened life, it doesn't mean that it never existed. .
In the response the argument that the fetus is not a human life pro-lifers ask "What is a fetus if it is not alive? And what is it if it is not human?" They say that a human life cannot be taken without justification. Tragically, in such cases, the victim is blameless, helpless, and defenseless. Abortion is culturally endorsed murder. One day, future generations will look back on our society's practice of abortion with horror, disdain, and shame in much the same way that we now view our nation's history of slavery and racial oppression.