Did Hillary Clinton Mean to Call the Unborn a Person?

Now as many pro-abortion groups have pointed out, using the term “unborn person” to refer to unborn humans suggests that the unborn are indeed persons. And, if they are persons, then they deserve the same constitutional rights given to all American persons. This includes the right to life. That’s why abortion groups refer to the unborn as a “fetus,” “a clump of tissue,” or simply “a pregnancy.” These terms dehumanize the unborn in an attempt to make people forget what the unborn really are—human beings.

Of course, saying that the unborn are just clumps of tissue ignores the vast medical and scientific evidence that the unborn are 100 percent humans. There’s no magical switch from just being a clump of cells to being human the moment a baby leaves the womb. From the very moment of fertilization, all of the DNA—a unique combination of information coming from each of the parents—needed to make a genetically unique individual is present. The tiny fertilized egg is a genetically unique human being that, over the next nine months, will quickly grow and develop until he or she can survive outside of the womb.

In this statement, Clinton, intentionally or not, affirmed the personhood of the unborn, but then turned right around and said that these people don’t have any constitutional rights. But why should these “unborn persons” not have the same rights—including the right to life—that all other Americans enjoy? In order to claim this, you have to deny the personhood of the unborn on arbitrary grounds.

Really, abortion is the end result of our sin nature and evolutionary thinking. After all, if we’re just animals, then why not get rid of spare children like spare cats? Abortion is a logical result of evolutionary thinking in our culture that does whatever is right in its own eyes (Judges 21:25). And in reality, it’s no different from the child sacrifice of people like the Canaanites. It’s really child sacrifice to the god of self.

But when we start with God’s Word, we understand that abortion is murder because it destroys a human life. Every person has been fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), and this gives each person intrinsic worth and value. Each of us is known by God even before fertilization (Jeremiah 1:5)! For those who start with the Bible, there is no other option but to acknowledge that the unborn are human beings—our relatives—deserving of life.

I encourage you to learn more about the sanctity of all life in our DVD pack “Sanctity of Life: Created in His Image.”

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.