Ben Shapiro on Abortion – “You Don’t Get To Kill Things Just ‘Cause It’s In Your Uterus”

Video Transcript:

Conservative firebrand Ben Shapiro laid into a pro-choice student during a Q and A session at Salisbury University in Maryland.

STUDENT: So women should just you know, say, “Suck it up and have a child?”

SHAPIRO: Well if you get pregnant, yes, because you don’t get to kill things just because it’s in your uterus.

STUDENT: It’s my body, how about you just stay out of it.

**indecipherable**

SHAPIRO: I don’t care about your appendix. And I don’t care about your thorax. I don’t even care about your uterus. I care about what’s in it.

STUDENT: I can take out my appendix if I don’t want it. So why can’t I take out other parts of my body?

SHAPIRO: Because they are not independent living human beings.

STUDENT: They aren’t independent living human beings when they’re a bundle of cells.

SHAPIRO: At what point does that bundle of cells become a human being in your view?

STUDENT: Uhm…

SHAPIRO: No really, I mean this…

STUDENT: No, I just need to calm down for a second.

SHAPIRO: Sorry, did I hurt your?

Then another student took the baton and tried to argue for abortion.

STUDENT 2: The concept of body autonomy means that I don’t have to give up any part of my body unless I say so.

SHAPIRO: The baby is not part of your body.

STUDENT 2: Yes it is, I nurture it.

SHAPIRO: Really? My wife is pregnant right now and she’s 30 weeks pregnant. Actually 32. That baby is kicking the living crap out of her. Ok, that is a living human being in there. Ok, and I promise you it’s not a bundle of cells. I can guarantee you it’s not a bundle of cells because that is a baby.

STUDENT 2: It’s still technically a bundle of cells that is requiring…

SHAPIRO: You’re technically a bundle of cells! Here’s the final point. Abortion is a very simple issue: If you believe – as you do apparently – that that’s nothing in there but a bunch of goo, then you’re right. If you believe in something called science, that that is more than a bundle of goo, then you do not get to kill it just because it’s convenient to you.

STUDENT 2: No science definitely dictates that a fetus until it can leave the womb and be technically viable is…

SHAPIRO: What is it?

STUDENT 2: a bundle of cells inside our person.

SHAPIRO: Ok, so if you can only live on life support, you’re not a person? You stop being a person? So if you get in a car crash and get put on life support – on an iron lung – take out the iron lung and you’re not a person anymore? Is that how this works?

STUDENT 2: If my brain is no longer functioning…

SHAPIRO: No you’re brain is functioning, but you can’t breathe on your own.

STUDENT 2: Then I’m still technically viable.

SHAPIRO: No you’re not because the machine is keeping you alive. Look, again, the bottom line is this. If you’re defining whether something is a life or not based on your own convenience, that is the nature of evil. If defining what a human being or not – whether something is a human being or not based on if you want it or not, is nasty.

STUDENT 2: You’ve manipulated science to enhance your own…

SHAPIRO: You’re the one manipulating science. You’re the one suggesting that it’s like snot. It’s not.