Does a Preborn Child Have a Right to Their Mother’s Body?

You’re talking to someone about abortion and they say that abortion must be allowed because you can’t give one person, a baby, a legal right to another person’s body, the mother. What would you say? No one should be compelled by someone else to give blood or donate a kidney. While organ donations may be honorable, we don’t require them. Some have concluded that the same principle means that pregnant women have no duty to “donate” their bodies to their babies once they become pregnant. Is this a good argument? Not necessarily. There are two reasons why. First, the womb exists for the child more than for the mother. My blood and kidneys exist in my body, for my body. But a uterus is different. It actually exists for someone else’s body. Unlike a kidney, a mother’s uterus exists more for her offspring than it does for her. While pregnancy is undoubtedly a sacrifice on behalf of the mother, a babies’ use of her mother’s womb is completely consistent with the purpose of the uterus. Not a violation of it. Which leads to the second point The more vulnerable a child is, the more we expect from the parents. Imagine a college student goes home for the holidays and asks his parents to feed him three meals a day. If the parents refuse we might be sad for the college student, but we wouldn’t charge the parents with neglect. But what if the child requesting food isn’t a college student? What if the child is four years old and the parents refuse to feed him. Is that neglect? Absolutely. What’s the difference between the four-year old and the college student? Dependence. By virtue of the neediness, weakness, and vulnerability of the child, just societies expect more of the parents—not less. Just as newborns, toddlers, and teens need their parents to provide food, clothing, and shelter, pre-born are especially vulnerable. They need their mother to make similar basic provisions in the only way possible, through the shelter and nourishment of her body. Let’s review. While some would accuse a pre-born child of violating her mother’s rights, in reality, a baby uses only that which was created specifically for her, and by allowing it to happen, mothers take care of the most vulnerable among us in a way only a mother can.