Abortion has always been a sensitive topic to society, and undoubtedly a controversial one. It is understandable for a topic dealing with human life to be a delicate one because of all the emotions it can provoke. But as it is well known, emotions can get us into trouble. Ever said something you didn’t really mean in a fit of rage? Ever study for weeks for a midterm just to completely freeze on the day of the test from nerves? Ever gave your dog just a little piece of chocolate, even though it’s bad for him, just because he gave you those big sad puppy eyes? Emotions can be great, beneficial devices, but if they’re not kept in check, they can really cloud our vision and allow us to take things out of proportion.

When most people think about abortion, the first thing that comes to mind is a cute, smiling baby followed by thoughts of killing and pain, resulting in a feeling of tragedy for these “murdered babies” and the label of “cruel” for abortion. This reaction, though it is understandable, is another example of letting our emotions dictate over our judgment. Jumping to a conclusion based on emotions, however powerful they are, only serves to block the exploration of our thoughts and the discovery of our own true beliefs. This is comparable to how nerves can block even the brightest students from getting an exam score reflective of their skill. Though most people don’t like to hear the “cold” and “compassionless” science behind such an emotional issue, looking at abortion strictly from an anatomical perspective can help refocus our thoughts to reality and stunt the irrationality and hasty conclusions brought on by unchecked emotions.

Emotions can be great, beneficial devices, but if they’re not kept in check, they can really cloud our vision and allow us to take things out of proportion.

As unappealing as it is, a baby starts out much like a tumor does, beginning with one cell and growing into a multi-cellular mass. For quite a while in its beginning, a baby is nothing more than the union of the father’s sperm and the mother’s ovum growing into a ball of cells in the mother’s uterine wall. As it grows, it eventually looks like a human infant and also gets humanlike characteristics such as a heartbeat, its own blood, organs, mobility, hearing, and the like. It is especially when a fetus begins to look and act like a baby that most people have the greatest problems with abortion.

But again, because it looks like a baby, or possibly because it will be a baby someday, we allow ourselves to assume all the baby-associated feelings for the fetus. In reality, within the first two-thirds of its time in the womb, a fetus is only a potential baby. Infants, as we know, are able to sustain their own basic bodily needs such as breathing, filtering their own blood, eating, and the like. Before a fetus reaches twenty eight weeks, also known as the third trimester of pregnancy, it simply cannot do enough to survive. Can something be biologically alive and be its own entity if it cannot breath or cry or filter its own blood or otherwise sustain its own existence? Truly, a “baby” before twenty eight weeks is just a baby-shaped mass, and is no more alive or independent of its parents than the other parts of the parents’ bodies, say an arm or a nose. Therefore, since a fetus is nothing more than the product of two other bodies, why shouldn’t the bodies that produced it get to decide what happens to their own cells before it becomes its own entity? Shouldn’t people get to decide what goes on with their own bodies, their own cells? Is not the body one of our most sacred things we as people possess?

The answers to these questions are numerous and swayed by countless personal influences, so this issue can only be put to rest by you. My intention in this essay is not to try to change your views about abortion or to advocate the pro-choice platform, for I know very little can be accomplished if I do. All I am trying to get you to do is reconsider how you approach this issue and explore the reasons for why you believe what you believe. After all, look at how much different the perspective of an unborn baby can change simply by removing emotions from the picture. Somehow, you just don’t feel the same tragedy for terminating a fleshy mass of cells as you do a “baby” do you? Allowing your emotions to rule over your stance in abortion is a common practice, but not a wise one. Emotions have a way of skewing things out of proportion from reality, and if you base your beliefs on them, you’re likely to come to a conclusion inconsistent with the reality of the issue.