–– Paul Schlehlein

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“My body, my choice” is a feminist slogan used to defend a woman’s right to autonomy over her choices. Women often employ this phrase to defend their right to an abortion.

Recently, the organization Doctors Without Borders have been urging women in Mozambique to terminate their pregnancies with a simple phrase: “No one should be ashamed to get an abortion.” After all, a woman can do what she wants with her body.

For years women in Lusaka, Zambia have campaigned in the streets, carrying signs with slogans like: “My Body, My Sexuality. My Rights, My Choice.” Or, “My Body, My Choice.” Or, “Before I’m a Woman, I’m a Human.” Or, “Keep Your Policies Off My Body.”

Groups in South Africa have organized social media campaigns such as #MyBodyMyChoice. Shikha Nayyar and Dineo Moerane claim this campaign was born out of a simple idea: “If it is her body, it should be her choice.”

How should one respond to this? Does a woman have complete autonomy over her body, including the right to abort her child? Here are six reasons why the argument “My body, my choice” fails.

Why “My Body, My Choice” Fails

First, people’s rights to their own bodies are limited. If I use my fists to punch a random bystander on the street, may I claim: “My body, my choice”? No, there are laws against assault. If I walk through the store naked, may I claim, “My body, my choice”? No, there are laws against public indecency. May a woman selling herself on the street corner claim, “My body, my choice”? No, there are laws against prostitution. If a man urinates in the public square, may he claim: “My body, my choice”? No, there are laws that forbid the use of his body this way. One’s authority over his or her body is not universal but is balanced by laws forbidding harm to others. 

Second, a baby in the womb is distinct from the mother’s body. “My body, my choice” advocates argue that because the foetus is a part of the woman’s body, she has the right remove it, just as she has the right to remove one of her teeth. But the child is a completely distinct person. The child in the womb has a different genetic code than the mother. Half of the baby’s chromosomes come from the mother, the other half from the father. An object “inside” another object does not mean they are the same, as though a gallon of milk in the fridge equates the two. And if the foetus is simply part of the woman’s body, why is it that the pregnant mother could die but the baby still live? It is because the baby is not merely a part of a woman’s body but an individual, unique life.

Third, ownership does not permit murder. Just because someone gets inside my car doesn’t mean I have the right to kill him. Just because someone walks across my property doesn’t give me the right to end his life. A woman does not have the right to murder her child simply because her womb carries life.

Fourth, abortion forbids millions of babies in the womb from controlling their own bodies. If “My body, my choice” advocates believe everyone has the right over their own bodies, why doesn’t this apply to the baby in the womb?

Fifth, greater size and strength doesn’t permit oppression. Africans have long decried their history of ill-treatment. The central argument against colonisation, for example, is that just because a nation is bigger, stronger and more wealthy does not give that nation the right to oppress a smaller, weaker nation. But this is exactly the position for which “My body, my choice” advocates. The mother’s body is fully grown. The baby is just developing. The mother can speak. The child cannot. The mother is autonomous. The baby is helpless. Proverbs 31:8 says, “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.”

Sixth, how a woman uses her body has consequences. Except for the rare cases of rape, women make the conscious choice to get pregnant. They could have abstained but didn’t. A mother has no right to take the life of another because of her poor choices. A man, for example, has the right to gamble away his pay check. If he cannot pay back his debts, the law should protect the banks, landlords, or car dealerships that are harmed by his poor choices, just as the law should protect the child created by the mother’s indiscretions.  

Conclusion

Though “my body, my choice” fools many as a good argument, it fails. Instead, our cry should be: “My body, His glory.” Our bodies are a gift from God which we should use to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 makes this clear. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”