Pro-lifers are often accused of forcing
their religious beliefs on others. But we
are not pro-life simply because that's
what our Catholic faith tell us. We are
pro-life because it is a truth
supported by faith, science, and reason. I
had a chance recently to sit down with
the top bioethics expert Carter Snead. I
asked him from a purely bio ethical
standpoint, what is your argument against
abortion? I'd say the easiest argument to
make in public terms that don't depend
on overtly religious commitment is the
pro-life argument the context of
abortion. It turns on two principles one
is the biological reality of the unborn
child's identity. Every embryology
textbooks that is used today
acknowledges that the human organism
that is emerges from fertilization is a
living member of the human species it's
a member of the species Homo sapiens the
living whole human organism that directs
herself along a developmental trajectory
that is species-specific and it on her
own power she needs of course like we
all do a natural environment to support
her life and so on and I say her because
at conception there is sex. We have
embryos are male or female and you can
you can test for that in fact they do in
sex selection in the context of IVF. Right. So the first idea is what we're
talking about here is a living member of
the human species and that's inarguable
as a biological matte. That doesn't
require any religious conceptions at all.
And then the second argument is an
argument about justice and equality
which is nested in our nation's most
foundational documents most specifically
the Constitution and the Declaration of
Independence and the idea that
individual deserve equal protection
under the law. If you're going to exclude
an entire segment of the human family
from the protection of the law because
they are small or dependent or
biologically immature or incapable of
certain temporarily incapable of certain
kinds of high-level biological
functioning, that's an injustice of the
highest order. That's a legal form of
discrimination and that argument doesn't
require you to be a Christian or a Jew
or a theist of any kind. If you recognize
the fundamental categories of biology
and the principles of equality and equal
justice under the law which we all do as
members of
America of the American civilization,
then you should be able to understand
and agree to the pro-life proposition".
"That's a humans rights issue."
"Fundamental equality." "You've been calling
for the defunding of Planned Parenthood
from federal funding for Medicaid for
years -  yes - why is that?" "I don't think any
institution that provides abortion and
Planned Parenthood, let's just be clear,
is the single greatest provider of -
largest provider of abortion the
United States. They make hundreds of
millions of dollars a year. They
abort hundreds of thousands of children
a year. I don't think any institution
like that should be should receive
taxpayer funding as a mandatory legal
principle I don't think taxpayers should
be required to hand their money over to
an organization that is the largest
provider of abortion in America. If Planned
Parenthood -  President Trump has made an
extraordinary offer - one I've never seen
made in the public square that if you
stop doing abortions then you can get
all this public funding. And i think
that's a fantastic proposal on his part
because it will force Planned Parenthood
to say because they always say -  oh it's
only three percent of what we do. Well if it's
only three percent you do, shouldn't be a
big deal. Stop doing abortions and he
gets a federal money, but if they refuse
as they have initially refused to do
that means they care more about abortion
than any other aspect of their operation
and that's an important thing to reveal
to the American people." "And in fact, the
President Cecile Richards  said it was a
vital part of what they do." "That's an ironic use of
the word vital." "Carter Snead, thank you."
"Thank you very much."
