This story was originally published in the GenZeal feature of LNP on Sunday, December 14, 2025.
By Faith Kneisley ‘26
About 73 million induced abortions occur around the world each year, according to Doctors Without Borders. That is 73 million people who never had the chance to live. Doesn’t everyone deserve a chance at life — no matter their size, race or gender? If you would answer yes, you may be more anti-abortion than you think.
The abortion debate is complex, involving poverty, rape, incest and women’s rights. But even with these difficult factors, I believe abortion is still wrong.
Reason No. 1 is that the unborn are people. When a baby is forming in the womb, it is a unique combination of DNA that has never existed before. It is alive. How is it then not a person? If someone argues it is human but not a “person,” that requires choosing a moment in pregnancy when personhood suddenly appears. As Laura Peredo wrote on the Live Action website, “There can be no magic moment when a non-person becomes a person because life is a continuum from conception until death.” We all exist in different sizes, levels of development and degrees of dependency — but those differences don’t change our humanity.
Because of that inherent dignity, it is wrong to kill innocent people. The unborn are innocent. They cannot control the circumstances of their conception or the challenges of their parents. Their lives are just as valuable as anyone else’s. If the unborn are people, and killing innocent people is wrong, then abortion is clearly wrong.
Abortion harms not only the baby, it may harm women, too. Afterward, some may experience physical complications, and some struggle emotionally with decreased self-esteem, nightmares, guilt and regret. According to a study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, “mental health hospitalization rates are higher after abortion than deliveries,” and risk is “elevated for psychiatric disorders, substance use, and suicide attempts.” Women deserve far better than that. They deserve compassionate care, real support and hopeful alternatives.
If we truly want to help women, we should expand resources that strengthen them, not leave them feeling alone or pressured. That means supporting local pregnancy centers; funding programs that provide baby supplies, housing, child care and counseling; and making sure no woman feels she has to choose between her future and her child’s life. Empathy means meeting women where they are, in fear, stress, or crisis, and offering help, not judgment. When we stand with women and protect the unborn, we uphold the most basic human right of all: the right to life.
Protecting the Unborn: Why the Right to Life Matters
This story was originally published in the GenZeal feature of LNP on Sunday, December 14, 2025.
By Faith Kneisley ‘26
About 73 million induced abortions occur around the world each year, according to Doctors Without Borders. That is 73 million people who never had the chance to live. Doesn’t everyone deserve a chance at life — no matter their size, race or gender? If you would answer yes, you may be more anti-abortion than you think.
The abortion debate is complex, involving poverty, rape, incest and women’s rights. But even with these difficult factors, I believe abortion is still wrong.
Reason No. 1 is that the unborn are people. When a baby is forming in the womb, it is a unique combination of DNA that has never existed before. It is alive. How is it then not a person? If someone argues it is human but not a “person,” that requires choosing a moment in pregnancy when personhood suddenly appears. As Laura Peredo wrote on the Live Action website, “There can be no magic moment when a non-person becomes a person because life is a continuum from conception until death.” We all exist in different sizes, levels of development and degrees of dependency — but those differences don’t change our humanity.
Because of that inherent dignity, it is wrong to kill innocent people. The unborn are innocent. They cannot control the circumstances of their conception or the challenges of their parents. Their lives are just as valuable as anyone else’s. If the unborn are people, and killing innocent people is wrong, then abortion is clearly wrong.
Abortion harms not only the baby, it may harm women, too. Afterward, some may experience physical complications, and some struggle emotionally with decreased self-esteem, nightmares, guilt and regret. According to a study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, “mental health hospitalization rates are higher after abortion than deliveries,” and risk is “elevated for psychiatric disorders, substance use, and suicide attempts.” Women deserve far better than that. They deserve compassionate care, real support and hopeful alternatives.
If we truly want to help women, we should expand resources that strengthen them, not leave them feeling alone or pressured. That means supporting local pregnancy centers; funding programs that provide baby supplies, housing, child care and counseling; and making sure no woman feels she has to choose between her future and her child’s life. Empathy means meeting women where they are, in fear, stress, or crisis, and offering help, not judgment. When we stand with women and protect the unborn, we uphold the most basic human right of all: the right to life.
Sources:
https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/5-reasons-why-abortion-health-care
https://www.liveaction.org/news/why-abortion-is-wrong-the-pro-life-case
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395625003309