{"id":274995,"date":"2022-08-30T18:45:58","date_gmt":"2022-08-30T23:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=274995"},"modified":"2022-09-02T00:22:56","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T05:22:56","slug":"pro-life-involuntary-servitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-involuntary-servitude\/","title":{"rendered":"The idea that pregnancy is ‘slavery’ and ‘servitude’ is not based in reality"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

The 13th Amendment states<\/a> that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude …. shall exist within the United States….” This language has led desperate abortion advocates to their latest justification of legalized abortion: that pregnancy is a form of involuntary servitude<\/em>. This notion \u2014 that women could be involuntary servants to pregnancy \u2014 is not based on legal reality or sound thought.<\/p>\n

Involuntary servitude to a preborn child?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea \u2014\u00a0as discussed by Reproductive Health Matters<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 that a woman could be a slave or an involuntary servant to her embryo or fetus is illogical. A child, especially one as vulnerable as a fetus or embryo in the womb, has no power or authority over an adult in any way. He or she exists with no agenda, no plan to force anyone to do anything, and no ability to make a decision or issue a command. In fact, the only reason that a preborn child exists in 99.95%<\/a> of pregnancies in the U.S. is because of the intentional act of consensual sex, which resulted in a predictable, reasonably foreseeable, natural biological outcome.<\/p>\n

In other words, in most cases, the woman helped to create<\/em> the human being by whom she claims she is being enslaved. But in reality, she could still legally kill that child in the United States. Her\u00a0child<\/em> is vulnerable to her<\/em> decisions \u2014 which would be impossible if she were her child’s involuntary servant.<\/p>\n

Involuntary servitude to the government?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In an opinion essay for The New York Times, Michele Goodwin, chancellor’s professor of law at the University of California,\u00a0states<\/a>, “Ending the forced sexual and reproductive servitude of Black girls and women was a critical part of the passage of the 13th and 14th Amendments. The overturning of Roe v. Wade<\/em> reveals the Supreme Court’s neglectful reading of the amendments that abolished slavery and guaranteed all people equal protection under the law.”<\/p>\n

READ:<\/strong>\u00a0Questions abound in GOP lawmaker\u2019s viral tale of teen allegedly harmed by pro-life law<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Likewise, in an opinion piece for The Hill, Alton Frye claims<\/a>, “It is difficult to conceive of any involuntary servitude graver than a government\u2019s compulsion of a woman to bear a child. Compulsory childbearing was a familiar practice in American slavery. Forced breeding of slaves was the widespread policy on numerous plantations, rooted less in the natural passions of humans than in the economic calculations of slave masters.”<\/p>\n

The unethical and horrific forced breeding that slave owners inflicted on their Black slaves took place so that they could sell the children for financial profit. They intentionally forced sex<\/em> between slaves in hopes of creating more slaves. “Forced breeding in the slave quarters manifested itself as an indirect form of rape,” explained<\/a> Daina R. Berry, a scholar of African American history, “where\u00a0powerless<\/em>\u00a0enslaved males and females became the victims of reproductive abuse to which they did not\u00a0willingly<\/em>\u00a0give their consent.”<\/p>\n

Forced breeding is not condoned by any pro-life laws or pro-life legislators. More than 99% of pregnancies occur during a consensual<\/em> act of either sex or fertility treatments. The government is not forcing women to have sex. No one \u2014 no person or government body \u2014 can actually force a pregnancy<\/em> to occur. A person can illegally<\/em> force sex<\/em>, but cannot force the biological act of fertilization. A fertility doctor could attempt<\/em> to achieve (or “force”) pregnancy through IVF or other fertility treatments, but as so many couples struggling with fertility concerns know \u2014 this is impossible<\/em>.<\/p>\n

By passing pro-life laws, the government is in no way forcing<\/em> women to become pregnant. What pro-life laws do is seek to prohibit the homicide of an already-conceived child in an early stage of human development, just as they seek to prohibit homicide after birth.<\/p>\n

Abortion advocates can use any of the constitutional amendments they want to attempt to make abortion a right, but it will never be an accurate interpretation of those amendments. The authors of an amendment meant to prohibit slavery<\/em>\u00a0did not intend for that amendment to allow parents to kill their own children<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 13th Amendment states that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude …. shall exist within the United States….” This language has led desperate abortion advocates to their latest justification of legalized abortion: that pregnancy is a form of involuntary servitude. This notion \u2014 that women could be involuntary servants to pregnancy \u2014 is not based on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":223558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15,3473,3,9459],"tags":[18811,1255,18814,18813,18810,18812,34,10012,180],"yoast_head":"\nThe idea that pregnancy is 'slavery' and 'servitude' is not based in reality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While abortion advocates claim that pro-life laws result in involuntary servitude, their arguments are not logically or constitutionally sound.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-involuntary-servitude\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The idea that pregnancy is 'slavery' and 'servitude' is not based in reality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While abortion advocates claim that pro-life laws result in involuntary servitude, their arguments are not logically or constitutionally sound.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-involuntary-servitude\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-30T23:45:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-02T05:22:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/GettyImages-538882863-pregnant.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1193\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nancy Flanders\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nancy Flanders\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-involuntary-servitude\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-involuntary-servitude\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nancy Flanders\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef\"},\"headline\":\"The idea that pregnancy is ‘slavery’ and ‘servitude’ is not based in reality\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-08-30T23:45:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-02T05:22:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-involuntary-servitude\/\"},\"wordCount\":691,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"13th amendment\",\"14th Amendment\",\"Alton Frye\",\"Daina R. 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