Youth Protecting Youth

Defending the Dignity of All Human Life

What’s in a name?


I am a clump of cells. I am tissue. I happen to be a collection of cells that comprises an entire individual of the human species. And you know what? So is an embryo. From the moment of fertilization, we are each human individuals. This is a biological fact.

I am a product of conception. So are you. Had our respective parents not conceived us, we would never have existed. Because we were conceived, we began to grow and develop, were born, and continue to grow and develop as we move throughout our lives.

I was once the contents of my mother’s uterus. But saying where someone or something is located doesn’t tell you who or what it is. The contents of my backpack might be a change of clothes, books for school, or any number of other things. We are humans regardless of where we are.

I am pro-life, but that doesn’t mean I’m against the termination of pregnancies. After all, it’s unnatural to be pregnant permanently. Ideally, a pregnancy terminates after about nine months with the birth of a healthy baby. We recognize that some children are born prematurely or with health problems, and that while this may cause challenges for them and their families, it in no way makes them any less human than you or I. Some pregnancies terminate in miscarriage – a tragic but natural occurrence. The only pregnancy terminations I oppose are those that involve the direct, intentional killing of the unborn child.

Calling the unborn “clumps of cells”, “blobs of tissue”, “products of conception”, or “uterine contents” does not adequately explain what they are. What they are is human beings at early stages of development. In simple terms, they are very little babies. But it’s easier to talk about terminating a pregnancy than to think about ending the life of a baby. I want to live in a society where we don’t need euphemisms for “baby.”

(Inspired by this video:


2 thoughts on “What’s in a name?

  1. oh this is rich.
    i agree that it’s silly to refer to a fetus as a ‘clump of cells’. we’re all clumps of cells, broadly defined.
    but you must notice the irony of this post. that is, these things work both ways. why do anti-abortion folk feel the need to use euphamisms such as ‘unborn baby’ for a fetus (or embryo, zygote, blastocyst, etc.). ‘baby’ is a colloquialism for an infant, which is someone from birth to one year of age. if you’re so sure that you are on the ‘right’ side of this debate, you shouldn’t be afraid to use the accurate, medical terminology. appeals to emotion are logical fallacies that tend to strip credibility from an argument, especially one that’s on shaky ground to begin with.
    they are not ‘very little babies’, they are fetuses. you may still believe that fetuses constitute human beings (i disagree, but that’s neither here nor there), but preying of people’s emotions by calling them babies reeks of desperation. it’s no better than pro-choicers who call them clumps of cells.
    let us all aim for a higher quality, more accurate level of discourse and cut it with the misinformation and weak appeals to emotion.

    • oh, and comparing a pregnant person to an inanimate backpack? that is insensitive and dehumanizing. it seems a strange tactic to alienate people by dehumanizing those who are able to get pregnant when trying to convince people of the personhood of fetuses. even if i were anti-abortion you certainly would have lost me with that one.

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