I was convinced beyond a moral doubt: Life begins at conception. But my conviction was more instinctual than cerebral. Then I began to think. I could be wrong. There are simple answers to most complex questions about life, but they are often wrong. Moreover, who crowned me with authority to decide for others when life begins? Complications and quandaries immediately appear.

If life begins at conception, then every abortion is murder — the intentional taking of a human life. All who assist abortions could also be criminally prosecuted for aiding and abetting murder. That would mean millions of murder prosecutions annually.

There can be no exceptions, even for rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. Embryos, after all, are morally pure and free of sin. They have not yet had an opportunity to enjoy life outside the womb. The mother may have done nothing wrong but at least has enjoyed more life than the embryo. In other words, the embryo seems more deserving of life than the mother by any moral metric.

The United States Constitution would prohibit any state from permitting abortion. The 14th Amendment prohibits the taking of life without due process of law. And an embryo is as innocent as a lamb. Is that what the authors of the amendment intended? Abortions were common in 1868 when the amendment was ratified.

Further, fathers would be liable, from the moment of conception, for child support to mothers to optimize their health care to diminish the probability of birth of a newborn with defects or handicaps, including costs of doctor and hospital checkups. Courts would need to appoint guardians at the time of conception to control the mother’s behavior and nutrition to promote birth of the embryo with maximum health and vigor. The father would be required to pay for the guardian as part of child support.

The Constitution requires a census of all “persons” every 10 years to determine the allocation of seats in the House of Representatives among the states. If personhood begins at conception, census takers would need to test women to determine whether they are pregnant for an accurate count. The constitutional mandate of one person, one vote in drawing congressional, state and municipal districts would also require testing females within district boundaries for pregnancy. Pregnant females would be entitled to the child income tax credit for embryos or fetuses, which would be doubled or tripled if twins or triplets were anticipated. IRS auditors would be required to test the females claiming a child income tax credit for pregnancy and further proof if twins or triplets were claimed.

The law permits the use of deadly force to prevent any person from killing another. If abortion is murder of an unborn human life, then mothers seeking abortions and persons aiding them could be killed under the doctrine of defending the life of another.

Section 1 of the 14th Amendment confers United States citizenship on “persons born in the United States,” but not on unborn embryos or fetuses. Is Section 1 itself unconstitutional because it arbitrarily treats born and unborn children differently?

If frozen embryos are unborn children, then discarding them is first-degree murder.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos (i.e., unborn children) possess the same rights as born children. Killing either the unborn or born is murder.

Pro-choice advocates deny that life begins at conception. But who gave them that power? Not the United States Constitution.

The law decides if life begins at conception. And the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision entrusts the decision to the states. The Constitution permits states to punish abortion as murder, to permit abortion on demand, or choose something in between.

Neither the Constitution nor law empowers scientists to decide when life begins, although legislators may consult their views in making the decision. A scientific paper published in 2021 examined the findings of 5,577 biologists. An overwhelming percentage (5,337 biologists) maintained that life begins during fertilization of the egg. Legislators would be wise to consider their views as well as the views of philosophers or clerics in defining when life begins. There are no easy answers here.

The Dobbs decision jumpstarted pro-choice advocacy, which had atrophied since the heyday of Roe v. Wade. Since then, the six states that have held referenda on abortion have all yielded pro-choice results: California, Michigan, Ohio, Vermont, Kentucky and Kansas. In 2024, up to 12 states may have abortion measures on their ballot, seeking to either affirm that the state constitution protects the right to abortion or that nothing in the constitution confers such a right.

Maybe the best answer to the question of when life begins is, “It depends.”

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