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Related: About this forumBill Nye: Can We Stop Telling Women What to Do With Their Bodies?
Published on Sep 22, 2015
The Science Guy argues that most anti-abortion legislation is derived from outdated beliefs that predate smart science by fifty centuries.
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Transcript - Many, many, many, many more hundreds of eggs are fertilized than become humans. Eggs get fertilized and by that I mean sperm get accepted by ova a lot. But thats not all you need. You have to attach to the uterine wall, the inside of a womb, a womans womb. But if youre going to hold that as a standard, that is to say if youre going to say when an egg is fertilized its therefore has the same rights as an individual, then whom are you going to sue? Whom are you going to imprison? Every woman whos had a fertilized egg pass through her? Every guy whos sperm has fertilized an egg and then it didnt become a human? Have all these people failed you? Its just a reflection of a deep scientific lack of understanding and you literally or apparently literally dont know what youre talking about. And so when it comes to womens right with respect to their reproduction, I think you should leave it to women. This is really you cannot help but notice. Im not the first guy to observe this, you have a lot of men of European descent passing these extraordinary laws based on ignorance. Sorry you guys. I know it was written or your interpretation of a book written 5,000 years ago, 50 centuries ago, makes you think that when a man and a woman have sexual intercourse they always have a baby. Thats wrong and so to pass laws based on that belief is inconsistent with nature. I mean its hard not to get frustrated with this everybody. And I know nobody likes abortion, okay. But you cant tell somebody what to do. I mean she has rights over this, especially if she doesnt like the guy that got her pregnant. She doesnt want anything to do with your genes, get over it, especially if she were raped and all this. So its very frustrating on the outside, on the other side. We have so many more important things to be dealing with. We have so many more problems to squander resources on this argument based on bad science, on just lack of understanding.
Its very frustrating. You wouldnt know how big a human egg was if it werent for microscopes, if it werent for scientists, medical researchers looking diligently. You wouldnt know the process. You wouldnt have that shot, the famous shot or shots where the sperm are bumping up against the egg. You wouldnt have that without science. So then to claim that you know the next step when you obviously dont is trouble. Let me do that again. Let me just pull back. At some point we have to respect the facts. Recommending or insisting on abstinence has been completely ineffective. Just being objective here. Closing abortion clinics. Closing, not giving women access to birth control has not been an effective way to lead to healthier societies. I mean I think we all know that. And I understand that you have deeply held beliefs and it really is ultimately out of respect for people, in this case your perception of unborn people. I understand that. But I really encourage you to look at the facts. And I know people are now critical of the expression fact based but whats wrong with that? So I just really encourage you to not tell women what to do and not pursue these laws that really are in nobodys best interest. Just really be objective about this. We have other problems to solve everybody. Come on. Come on. Lets work together.
Directed / Produced by Jonathan Fowler, Elizabeth Rodd, and Aaron Lehmann
Joe Turner
(930 posts)So the "don't tell what a women what she can do with her body" is a null and void argument. Make the guy pay even after he's broke and up to his ears in debt, help the mother out with financial assistance, put the baby up for adoption...but don't kill the fetus. I just don't get why this issue keeps on coming up in political circles when *morally* it's obvious the pro-life side is right.
love_katz
(2,579 posts)The issue, the real issue, is that some people believe they should be able to FORCE other people to goose-step to their particular religious beliefs. These same people view women as not human, as nothing other than an incubator, with no rights to even her own body.
All this so-called 'right to life' crap is really about controlling and tyrannizing women. We have a heartbeat, and are living, breathing HUMAN beings. We are not empty vessels, mere containers for other people to control.
Joe Turner
(930 posts)It's a sense of morality on this issue. If you think this is tyrannizing women just what the hell do you call scraping life out of a womb?
Laffy Kat
(16,379 posts)What about girls/women who are victims of incest and/or rape? If "scraping a life out of a womb" is killing, does it make a difference to you how that so called "life" was conceived?
haikugal
(6,476 posts)Don't bother....
Joe Turner
(930 posts)Just people making a bad moral decision. I agree there are some acceptable reasons for pregnancy termination. Of course most abortions have nothing to do with rape or incest. It has to do with the inconvenience of being pregnant and the responsibility of raising a child. I feel that is wrong.
dougolat
(716 posts)sometimes it's saving the life of a woman
sometimes it's preserving the health of a girl too young for pregnancy
sometimes it's keeping a family below the poverty line from falling below the survival line
sometimes it's unhealthy people with unhealthy diets and living in unhealthy places being unable to have a healthy, viable baby
But every time, I call it "Her business", not mine (or yours)
And morality! Since it's a scraping procedure, indicating early pregnancy, where is the morality in making actual human beings suffer for the somewhat ignorant, somewhat self-righteous reverence for a fertilized egg that is only a potentiality and hope? If capable of receiving constant nurture and care and protection for, ideally, 270 days (no small task, 52 weeks, 5 days per week, no vacation and no holidays is 260 days) that fertilized egg just MAY perform the feat of an entire, successful gestation, but there's no guarantee, except a negative one if any one of a myriad factors go wrong.
It's like you're expecting a touchdown at every forward pass. Such things can not be demanded, or legislated.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)Joe Turner
(930 posts)Most of the time it is just an inconvenient pregnancy. And you can rationalize it all you want that it is really this or that when there is no good excuse not to carry the baby to term and if it really is impossible for whatever reason to raise the child put the baby up for adoption. This issue is going to keep on being a drag for the democratic party because most people sympathize with the pro-life movement.
dougolat
(716 posts)(but you need to change "most people" to "most authoritarian creeps, Fox bubble-heads, Alex Jones maniacs, KKK throwbacks and clinic bombers and doctor killers"
One man's inconvenience can be a woman's degrading tragedy.
Joe Turner
(930 posts)dougolat
(716 posts)Qutzupalotl
(14,311 posts)That is what "telling a woman what to do with her body" amounts to. It completely ignores the rights of the mother, who is definitely a living, breathing, independent human being.
If the American Taliban have their way, and outlaw abortion (or institute a 9-month waiting period), women in tough situations will die in unsafe medical procedures in unsanitary conditions.
A society that does not respect women is not a moral society.
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)were written by ignorant people. We have come a far way. We need to move beyond bronze age voodoo.
love_katz
(2,579 posts)PSPS
(13,598 posts)"they just want to control"
Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)because they worry about their "maker" pointing out that they didn't do their part to assure the flow of souls thru the gamut of life. Each conception is a chance for a new being(s) to glorify God. Not actively doing one's part to make that happen reflects badly on us and keeps us from Heaven in the end.
It's NOT so much about the child or even the mother - it's selfishly about the protesters own redemption. Defend it if you must, but religion is just determined ignorance.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)pansypoo53219
(20,976 posts)handmade34
(22,756 posts)and thank you Bill Nye!
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)Ignorance in America at the highest level of legislative office CONTRADICTS its argument, and Nye nailed it -
We have a legislative branch of government run amuck with its priorities backwards, taking us further backwards because they literally don't know WHAT THE FUCK they are talking about!
And, who suffers in society?