Nothing quite kills the mood at a dinner party like discussions of religion, politics, abortion,
or veganism. So I thought it would be a bang-up idea if in THIS video, we discuss all four!
(I don’t have much of a social life…)
Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. Among the litany
of objections to and arguments against veganism, from your standard “plants have feelings”
and “but lions eat meat,” lies an area of discourse not so easily answered or discounted:
the vegan stance on abortion.
The topics of abortion and veganism do share common ground. Both are decidedly polarizing
issues quick to spark heated debate, have passionately outspoken individuals on either
side of the issue, often utilize similar tactics within their outreach, education, and demonstrations,
and involve a strong focus on the concepts of sentience, individuality, pain perception
and consciousness.
Before we dive into this moralistic minefield, let me first state that I will not be settling
the abortion debate in this video. Sorry to disappoint. What I will do is present the
various arguments posed, along with perceived logical inconsistencies, and scientific insights.
I will also be using the common terms of pro-life and pro-choice though I realize that either
side has issues with these and have their own terminology. This is merely to simplify
the rhetoric in order to address the topic at hand. You can find complete citations and
a full bibliography for everything discussed today on the blog post for this video linked
below.
I’d like to add that there is no vegan consensus or official doctrine on abortion. Vegans,
like the rest of the world’s population, hold very different beliefs outside of their
refusal to participate in the exploitation of non-human animals. Views on abortion are
often, but not always, heavily influenced by ones religious or spiritual practice and
morals, which vary as wildly amongst vegans as non.
In fact the issue of whether abortion is even relevant to veganism itself is hotly debated.
While the abortion issue is, at least from my personal experience, most often thrown
out as a diversion tactic intended to invalidate veganism as a whole, there remain a few very
real and valid intersections to explore.
The disconnect most often perceived within the veganism and abortion debate is the pro-choice
vegan. Let’s start at the surface and the most basic argument against pro-choice veganism:
if vegans are against killing, then we have to be against all killing. The fallacy in
this position is what’s called a false dilemma, posing a black and white reality when ample
grey exists.
Even most peace-loving pacifists would defend themselves against an attacker and find no
moral fault in the death of a perpetrator during a true kill-or-be-killed situation.
On the other side of the coin lies the most basic defense for pro-choice veganism: abortion
is dealing with a fetus in utero, of which the sentience, consciousness and pain perception
continues to be hotly debated, while veganism deals with beings who are undeniably sentient,
conscious, and pain-perceiving. However, as we will soon see, this oversimplification
fails to account for countless complex nuances, though it is without doubt the most striking
divergence, and one to take into account.
When we start delving deeper into the abortion debate, the lines begin to blur even further.
The ability of a fetus to feel pain is a primary argument of the pro-life camp. Seeing as how
the prevention of pain and suffering is a pillar of vegan ethics as well, it would appear
that pro-choice vegans are left with quite the conundrum. If, in fact, a fetus can feel
pain, then the born vs. unborn moral distinction fails. The key word being “if.”
Here’s one of the places the abortion debate lacks the clarity of veganism. Scientists
still do not agree on fetal pain perception. A 2005 meta-analysis concluded that, “fetal
perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester.” A 2010 review by Britain’s
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, stated that, “the fetus cannot experience
pain in any sense prior [to 24 weeks].” The earliest estimate comes from Dr. Kanwaljeet
S. Anand, something of an outlier in the field and oft-quoted by the pro-life cause. Anand
proposes a window of 18-24 weeks, though he’s emphasized that, “fetal pain does not have
much relevance for abortion, since most abortions are performed before the fetus is capable
of experiencing pain,” with only 1.5% of abortions occurring after 20 weeks in the
United States. One element clouding the issue is the difference
between nociception and pain, something I discuss more in-depth in my video “Can Fish
Feel Pain.” In short, there can be reaction to potentially painful or harmful stimuli
without the experience of pain, and nociceptors, which appear as early as 7 weeks, are not
in and of themselves capable of relaying pain. Of course, this uncertainty doesn’t exactly
place pro-choice veganism in the clear. Many vegans believe that the ability of non-human
animals to feel pain shouldn’t have to be scientifically proven to our satisfaction
before we stop abusing them. Why conduct cruel studies when they make it glaringly obvious
with crying out, trying to escape, flinching, struggling, and showing indicators of psychological
stress? We should operate on the assumption that they can feel pain. So why then, does
this courtesy not extend to a human fetus? If pain alone were the issue, vegans would
support the killing of unconscious animals and pro-lifers wouldn’t protest the abortion
of fetuses prior to the development of pain perception. But both issues have additional
layers, such as conscious awareness or sentience, and future life interests.
Vegans see the sentience of non-human animals, meaning their ability to feel, perceive and
experience life subjectively, as a solid grounds for their protection. Often interchanged with
“consciousness,” sentience in non-human animals is widely accepted among scientists,
with over 2,500 studies and the release of an international Declaration of Consciousness
in 2012.
Similar to the variances in pain-perception development, the certainty of sentience is
lacking within the abortion debate. Still, as vegan activist Gary Yourofsky has stated,
“sentience [isn’t] the only factor when deciding how we should treat other beings.
(Even though trees, mountains, air and water are insentient life forces, I think they have
a right NOT to be exploited and polluted and destroyed.)”
Where the argument against pro-choice veganism really gains some ground is the discussion
of life potential. Vegans, including myself, often argue that even if we could somehow,
someway actually kill a non-human animal without any pain or awareness, it would still be unethical
as we could be choosing to end their life prematurely. We do not see such an action
as our choice, as personal choice is no longer personal when it involves the welfare of another.
How, then, can a vegan possibly support the choice to abort the potential life of a human?
The argument that the fetus is not aware of a future won’t stand unless vegans also
condone the killing of animals who are unaware or unconscious at the time of death. So have
we circled back to the born vs. unborn divide? Again this becomes hazy with the uncertainty
of pain and sentience.
There exists an element of self-defense congruent with vegan ideals that can be applied to abortion
in the cases of rape and incest or when the life of the mother is at stake. But what about
abortion out of inconvenience or financial strain? Or sex-selective abortions wherein
female fetuses are aborted due to male cultural preference, a practice most often associated
with China and India, but prevalent in many other countries where males increasingly outnumber
females. Is choosing to stop the potential life of a fetus for what could be termed one’s
own comfort a parallel to meat eaters ending the lives of non-human animals for their own
comfort?
Even more direct parallels exist. In my video “Is Lab Meat Vegan,” I discussed the harvesting
methods for bovine fetal serum, a growth medium used within a wide range of laboratory experiments,
along with fetal pig and fetal sheep serums. Bovine fetal serum is obtained by piercing
and draining the beating heart of fetal calves who’ve been cut from their mothers’ wombs
in slaughterhouses.
This practice was understandably met with horror and disgust from vegan viewers and
even non-vegans. Were any of these vegans pro-choice, would this reaction be an indication
of dissonance or hypocrisy? The study I cited went on in length about the potential pain-perception
of the bovine fetuses and referenced a general acceptance of 24 weeks for human fetus pain
perception, and presented a figure of roughly 12 weeks, or 3 months for cows, who are more
fully developed at birth than humans.
Again the variances in situation may create a buffer for the pro-choice vegan given that
bovine fetuses must be at least 3 months old to provide enough serum and are often 6 months
or older when put through this procedure without any anesthesia, well beyond the point of pain
perception. Additionally, it’s readily evident that a human mother procuring an abortion
differs dramatically from cutting a living fetus from the body of a mother cow slaughtered
against her will in order to drain the heart for profit.
I would like to bring up another wrinkle. While vegans believe in the rights of non-human
animals, the majority, from what I have found, which is by no means conclusive, do seem to
support the spaying and neutering of companion animals. While this is most certainly a violation
of their rights, it is not, as Gary Yourofsky has written, a cruel practice when performed
properly. He, along with many activists, argues that since the domestication of dogs and cats
will not be undone anytime soon, spaying and neutering is a better alternative than the
current cruel and needless deaths of millions of abandoned, unwanted companion animals due
to overbreeding.
Once again the parallel is by no means ideal, as our animal companions have no ability to
make this choice for themselves, and spaying and neutering prevents a pregnancy while abortion
ends one. I present this simply as an example of vegans being faced with an ethical ambiguity
and supporting the restriction of animals’ reproductive rights.
At the more misanthropic end of the spectrum, since humanity continues to murder trillions
of innocent beings every year, decimate the planet, and grow in population and demand
for meat, could it be argued that stemming this proliferation at its root would actually
be perfectly inline with vegan principles?
Any attempt to present a singular vegan view on abortion negates the diversity and variance
of vegans themselves. Many vegans reject the aforementioned “animals vs. humans” dichotomy,
seeing human and animal rights as inextricable – to be protected and fought for concurrently.
Something I personally find fascinating in this whole debate is the focus on whether
vegans can be pro-choice. With all of the uncertainties inherent in fetal pain-perception
and sentience and the absolute certainties of non-human animal c pain-perception and
sentience it’s interesting that the more concrete question usually remains unasked:
can someone non-vegans be pro-life?
As I said in the opener, I’m not going to settle the abortion debate, or even the veganism
and abortion debate. Even with my attempts at simplifications, it’s evident how complex
this dialogue can easily become.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the debate in the comments below. It’s gonna be fun
down there. If you’d like to help support Bite Size Vegan so I can keep putting in these
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