People have different opinions on a variety of issues, but it’s important to present things in a fair manner. When considering the issue of abortion, there is a tendency for people to frame the issue in an unfair way. For example, the term “pro-life” implies that individuals who disagree support death. Alternatively, “pro-choice” implies that opposition to abortion is an infringement on individual rights. The terms themselves make presumptions about the facts. Similarly, the question “should people have the right to abort an unborn child?” is misleading. In the minds of many people, the question of whether a fetus is a “child” is important to forming an opinion on the question “is abortion unethical?”

There should be access to abortion for a variety of reasons. Before going into them, however, it’s important to elaborate on the pro-life position. These individuals are often attacked for opposing freedom, but they honestly believe abortion is a form of murder. People don’t talk about a murderer being denied their “freedom to kill.” It’s a bit unfair for pro-choice supporters to criticize opponents on that basis. The reasoning they use to conclude “abortion is murder” isn’t necessary incorrect. The foundation of their conclusion, however, rests on whether a fetus is “an unborn child.” This is where the pro-life position is mistaken.

More specifically, moral consideration is given to people on the basis of certain criteria. Philosophers have debated for centuries about what these criteria are. It’s reasonable to claim that most people think one or a combination of the following traits makes something warrant moral consideration: the ability to feel pleasure, the ability to feel pain, rationality, and/or having a soul. Religiously speaking, the time when a person receives a “soul” is not clearly stated in a theocratic context. In fact, religions have changed their opinion on abortion at various times throughout history.

The majority of abortions occur early in the pregnancy. These are cases where science has determined “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the fetus lacks consciousness, rationality, the ability to feel pain, the ability to feel pleasure, or any other qualities that would typically be associated with a human being. It has the potential to be human, but that’s true of individual cells. The extreme extension of the anti-abortion position seems to require people to have children whenever possible. Otherwise, they are preventing a child from existing when it “might have otherwise” been born.

To return to religion, where much of the abortion controversy resides, it’s important to recognize that God is almost always described as omniscient. This means he predicts the future, and that includes exactly what will occur. He doesn’t receive new information when someone suddenly decides to abort. He knew that person was going to abort before they were born. He knew what thoughts they would struggle with when making the decision. This means that he isn’t missing out on a life he planned out. He’s God and gets whatever he wants. Even religious scholars evaluate great tragedies as part of a greater plan. From a religious standpoint, there is no means to conclude that a child that “was meant to be born” isn’t being born.

What happens if a child can feel pain or develops rationality? It’s a more difficult question, but there are reasons to support a women’s right to choose “merely because she is in control of her body.” These abortions might be morally undesirable. If society could remove a fetus from a women without harming her, would it be legitimate? Or is it her property? These are interesting moral questions that may arise as technology progresses. It’s a difficult project to defend abortion in all hypothetical cases. In the majority of cases, however, there is simply nothing “morally speaking” that is troubling “with respect to the fetus.” Cases where the family expected a child and were hurt by an abortion may be tragic, but that is a tragedy unrelated to the moral standing of the fetus itself, which at least in early stages, is not an unborn child.